FULL Les Enfants Terribles (Philip Glass) Bordeaux 2011 Chloé Briot, Amaya Dominguez, Olivier Dumait

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Les Enfants Terribles  
• Composer: Glass Philip   
• Libretto: based on Jean Cocteau    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Opéra National de Bordeaux, France  
• Recorded: 2011
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Chloé Briot, Amaya Dominguez, Olivier Dumait, Guillaume Andrieux
• Conductor: Emmanuel Olivier  
• Orchestra: Emmanuel Olivier, Jean-Marc Fontana, Françoise Larrat, PIANOS  
• Stage Director: Stéphane Vérité  
• Stage Designer: Stéphane Vérité  
• Costume Designer: Hervé Poeydomenge  
• Lighting Designer: Stéphane Vérité  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: mezzo  
• Date Published: 2011  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
• Subtitles: yessubs, frsubs  
• Video Recording from: vk     FULL VIDEO
•  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Quote from Wikipedia:
Les Enfants terribles is a danced chamber opera for four voices and three pianos (grand pianos or electronic), composed in 1996 by Philip Glass, to a French-language libretto by the composer, in collaboration with the American choreographer Susan Marshall, after Jean Cocteau’s eponymous novel published in 1929 and Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1950 film. Commissioned by the “Steps” dance festival organized by the Pour-cent culturel Migros [fr] in several Swiss cities, this is the last part of a trilogy in homage to the French poet after Orphée (1993) and La Belle et la Bête (1994). The world premiere of the work took place on 18 May 1996 in Zug conducted by Karen Kamensek.

Synopsis
After the death of their mother, Elizabeth and Paul, orphaned brother and sister left to their own devices and bound by an exclusive affection, live together in their large Parisian apartment.

They have built themselves a chimeric universe governed by sibylline symbols. Their room is a real sanctuary where a “treasure” is enthroned with a meaning that is also known only to them. “Elizabeth” met Michael and married him, but the next day he died in an accident without their marriage having been consummated.

She inherited Michael’s fortune, including a large private mansion where Paul came to join her with their famous treasure. Gérard, a comrade of Paul and his friend Agathe, who strangely resembles Dargelos (a schoolboy that Paul idolized), soon come to live with them. But when Elizabeth understands that love is born between her brother and Agatha, like a Greek divinity, a kind of Parque, she weaves a Machiavellian web so that her brother cannot escape it. As in all ancient tragedies, the outcome can only be fatal.

Fascinating by the morbid desire carried by the Paul/Elisabeth relationship, this seemingly banal story hides a tragedy: the inevitable end of adolescence, its myths, its grace, its illusions. Elizabeth and Paul die for breaking this law by wanting to eternalize a moment of passage. Indeed, as soon as Dargelos’ snowball reaches Paul in the chest, time stops, “the room” begins to live. It became their deserted island, the little piece of land isolated from the rest of the world where they built cabins with their pillows and led a Robinson’s existence at night. Their bodies grow, Paul’s legs protrude under his sheets, they play at having the desires of grown-ups; but in fact, nothing moves. If they move, it’s to rebuild the room immediately. Behind their incessant quarrels, their constant agitation, there is a morbid desire for immobility…

It was Dargelos, the hidden god of this tragedy, who precipitated its outcome by sending a poisoned black ball to Paul, who completed the work of the first snowball. Elizabeth, priestess of the chamber, is only the instrument of fate. By killing herself and her brother, she brings their adolescence into eternity.