Le Premier Meurtre

An opera by Arthur Lavandier
Libretto Federico Flamminio

Duration 1h30 without intermission

Language French

Creation Le Balcon – Opéra de Lille
Commissioned by Opéra de Lille – Le Balcon – Fondation Singer-Polignac
Coproduction Opéra de Lille – Le Balcon

*
Supported by the Fonds de Création Lyrique-SACD, de la Copie privée, de la Fondation ORANGE et d’Areitec.
Supported by programme CERNI du Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication.

Full film :

Le Premier Meurtre tells the story of a writer, Gabriel, desperate for inspiration and exiled, who is finally allowed back in the city, to write again. His wife is against that idea, thinking that they will, again, have to lose everything.

During the journey, the writer falls in love with one of the actors working for him. Later, as they fight (the actor, Hyppolite, wants the writer to leave his wife and his work for him), the actor kills himself.

In the shadows, L’Autre [The Other], a man from the past, sees everything.
He will try to use it to take the writer’s wife, Emma, for him. Around this story, two narrators try to influence the fate of each character, but the only interaction they can have with them is through Misère [Misery], Gabriel’s servant. She is the only one who can see the narrators and talk to the characters.

On stage, each one dressed as Gabriel, 12 instrumentalists play the role of the narrators’ power.

Le Balcon
Musical and Artistic Direction Maxime Pascal
Stage Director Ted Huffman
Artistic Collaboration Adam H. Weinert
Stage Manager’s Assistant Agathe Cemin
Scenographer’s Assistant Myrtille Debièvre
Sound Projection Florent Derex
Computer Music Design Baptiste Chouquet
Lighting Design Malcolm Rippeth
Costumes Pascale Lavandier, Clémence Pernoud
Video Pierre Martin
Preparation of the singers Alphonse Cemin

Gabriel Vincent Le Texier
Emma Léa Trommenschlager
Misère Élise Chauvin
Herman Manuel Nuñez-Camelino
Aleksandr Damien Bigourdan
Hyppolite Taeill Kim
L’Autre Vincent Vantyghem

Claire Luquiens flute
Iris Zerdoud clarinets
Joël Lasry horn
Manon Souchard horn
Matthias Champon trumpet
Henri Deléger trumpet
Mathieu Adam trombone
Maxime Morel tuba
Akino Kamiya percussions
Othman Louati percussions
You-Jung Han violin
Aurélie Deschamps viola