2023-12-27 19:30:14
Performance of the show “Winterreise” (“Winter Journey”), by Franz Schubert, by the Miroirs extendés company, with, from left to right, Jean-Christophe Lanièce, Romain Louveau (from behind) and Victoire Bunel, in Villefavard (Haute-Vienne) in December 2021. PHILIPPE BONA
After presenting there, in February, a daring but enriching rereading of the famous Orpheus and Eurydiceby Gluck, the company Miroirs extendés returns to the Théâtre de l’Athénée, in Paris, for a new iconoclastic interpretation of a jewel of the vocal repertoire: the Winter trip (The Winter Journey), by Franz Schubert, given until December 29. As it is no longer an opera, but a cycle of lieder, the team – reduced to three units on the stage – no longer performs in the main hall of the theater, but in the Christian-Bérard room , an intimate space which is located almost under the attic.
” Redo The Winter Journey ? », this is the question full of innuendo that opens the show. Propose a stage version (this has already been done, among others, at the Athénée by Yoshi Oïda, in 2012) of a set of melodies for voice and piano, intended primarily for the concert. Distribute to several singers (again, an entirely new approach) the monologue assigned to an average voice (baritone or mezzo-soprano). Consider the wandering of the stranger, the anonymous character who confides through the twenty-four lieder, adopting, literally and figuratively, the posture of a stranger. This time, the point of view is truly original.
Especially since the question, asked in writing on a digital screen at the back of the stage, comes from someone we cannot see and who will not fail to intervene, from time to time, with humor, to comment on, or even extend, the journey made by the singers, in a fairly loose theatrical framework (elliptical dramaturgy by Antoine Thiollier, “glow worm” style lighting by Philippe Gladieux). About artificial intelligence? It’s up to everyone to decide and “remake” in their company a Winter travel to the itinerary, moreover, redefined according to the order planned by the poet, Wilhelm Müller, quite different from that established by the composer.
Bipolar interpretation
If the two notebooks (the first, opened by the famous Gute Nacht/Good nightthe second, closed by the symbolic Der Leiermann/The Hurdy-gurdy Player) preserve the alpha and omega of the Schubertian journey, the inversion of certain pages gives another meaning to the overall trajectory which, in its first part, is based on experience and, in the second, on questioning, sometimes existential. The contrast is perfectly illustrated by the vocal identity of the singers. Victoire Bunel is a mezzo-soprano who “sends”. A sharp blade that cuts into the memories of the first part, moving unceremoniously from the bass (its most nuanced register) to the treble (with a striking intensity).
You have 30% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
#colorful #Winter #Journey #Athénée