La Métamorphose
Michael Levinas
La Métamorphose (2011), opera after Kafka, for solo voices, chorus and ensemble preceded by Je, Tu, Il (2011), prologue to La Métamorphose, by Valère Novarina
In Kafka's text, there is opera," Michaël Levinas once told us. It was never a question of taking a text and setting it to music, but of seeking and finding the inevitable music of the text, which appears as the words pass and the meaning of the text is formulated. Such is his adaptation of La Métamorphose, one of the strangest short stories of the twentieth century: an art that merges into another, an intimate approach to the Kafkaesque phrase, and an important work on musical temporality. The film directed by Nieto (who also directed the opera) is a work that can be discovered in its own right. Fascinated by the monstrosity, loneliness, sadness and weirdness of this text, Nieto lets us see Levinas' music as it is: a formidable discovery of the acoustics, timbres and colors of a text that cannot be forgotten.
Premiere of this production on June 12, 2015 at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet
Revivals in September 2015 at the Festival Musica and in December 2015 at the Avant Seine, Théâtre de Colombes.
Le Balcon
Musical direction Maxime Pascal
Stage direction & video creation Nieto
Libretto: adaptation of the text of Franz Kafka's La Métamorphose (1915) by Emmanuel Moses, Benoît Meudic and Michaël Levinas, based on the translation by Claude David ©Éditions Gallimard.
Set design John Carroll
Costumes Pascale Lavandier
Lighting Arthur Cemin
Collaboration à la mise en scène Violeta Zamudio
Vocal director Alphonse Cemin
Computer music production Benoît Meudic
Computer music control Augustin Muller
Video control Benoit Simon
Sound projection Florent Derex
Special effects Franck Limon-Duparcmeur
Accessories Marguerite Lantz
Set design assistant Myrtille Debièvre
Prologue Je, tu, il
Camille Merckx, Elise Chauvin, Anne-Emmanuelle Davy, Vincent Vantyghem.
La Métamorphose
Grégor Rodrigo Ferreira, countertenor
Grégor's sister Elise Chauvin, soprano
La Mère Camille Merckx, mezzo-soprano
Le Père Vincent Vantyghem, baritone
Le Fondé de pouvoir, locataire 1 Sydney Fierro, bass-baritone
Locataire 2 Florent Baffi, bass-baritone
Locataire 3 Virgile Ancely, bass-baritone
La Femme de peine Anne-Emmanuelle Davy, mezzo-soprano
Flutes Claire Luquiens
Horn Joël Lasry
Trumpet Henri Deléger
Trombone Mathieu Adam
Percussion Benoit Maurin, Akino Kamiya
Keyboards Alphonse Cemin, Sarah Kim
Harp Clara Izambert
Guitar Giani Caserotto
Violin Valentin Broucke
Violas Andrei Malakhov, Marine Gandon
Violoncello Askar Ishangaliyev
Double basses Simon Guidicelli, Juliette Herbet
Coproduction Le Balcon, Ircam-Centre Pompidou, Stink with the support of Fondation Orange, Fondation Singer-Polignac and Areitec
Co-production Athénée Théâtre Louis Jouvet
