Thomas Jolly’s Fantasio finally takes up residence at the Opéra Comique

2023-12-13 10:22:57

By Le Figaro with AFP

Published now, Updated now

Performed for the first time in 2017 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Covid-19 prevented the performance of this work at the Opéra Comique in 2020. It returns there this December 23. FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP

This little-known work by Jacques Offenbach based on a play by Alfred de Musset returns to the Parisian institution on Wednesday December 23, carried by the director of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games

Failed at its creation at the Opéra Comique in 1872, Fantasio by Jacques Offenbach based on a play by Alfred de Musset, returns to the Parisian institution from Wednesday to December 23, carried by the director of the moment, Thomas Jolly.

Project manager of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games in 2024, on the Seine, and the return of Starmania in 2022, Thomas Jolly, 41, is one of the most inventive actors in French performing arts.

Black and gray tones punctuated with touches of color (like the yellow costume of Fantasio who became the king’s jester), outrageous makeup: the markers of the Jolly style are found in this creation given for the first time in 2017 at the Théâtre du Châtelet, in Paris, and whose Covid-19 prevented the performance at the Opéra Comique in 2020.

Also readFantastic Fantasio at the Théâtre du Châtelet

Another of his signatures, the omnipresent machinery on stage recalls the “turning points” of the 19th century, from the invention of electricity to progress in botany, the director explained to AFP in November.

In three acts and 02H45, the hedonist Fantasio, played by mezzo-soprano Gaëlle Arquez, takes on the role of jester to escape his creditors and save the princess of the kingdom of Bavaria (soprano Jodie Devos) from an arranged marriage. Between vanities and political arrangements, will the madman be the voice of reason in the face of the looming war?

An ode to peace, the work was withdrawn after only ten performances in 1872, two years after the French defeat against the Prussian army at Sedan. Critics and the public had not forgiven this pacifism and the German origin of its composer. Between “loss of bearings”, “political unrest” and disinformation on the internet, “Musset, for me, is a very relevant author at the momentexplained Thomas Jolly at his creation. Hence the idea of ​​refocusing on oneself and the values ​​of love” carried by Fantasio and Princess Elsbeth, which oscillate between melancholy and fun.”

The lost French score, partly burned in the fire at the Opéra Comique in 1887, was reconstructed by musicologist Jean-Christophe Keck in 2013. Laurent Campellone, general director of the Tours opera house, is in charge of musical direction.