Until the Lions, the fourth opera by Thierry Pécou (born in 1965), bears witness to a beautiful story, both from the point of view of the person who gave rise to it and that of the subject who inspired it. Its creation, Sunday September 25, in Strasbourg, within the framework of the 50e anniversary of the Opéra national du Rhin, took on the character of a posthumous tribute to Eva Kleinitz (1972-2019), the German playwright who had commissioned it, shortly after being appointed head of the institution now headed by the Swiss Alain Perroux.
This exceptional woman, esteemed in an environment dominated by men, was totally invested in the definition of a project likely, like her, to escape the norm. Choice of artists capable of producing it and, of course, choice of text. With, as a common point, an inclination to use filters to serve the story, musical or literary. This is the case with the booklet (in English) that the writer Karthika Naïr took from her poetic essay Until the Lionsa work itself conceived from an episode of Mahabharatathe mythological epic which is to India what theIliad and theOdyssey are in Greece.
The story of an impossible revenge for a woman, except to change sex. Such was the destiny of Princess Amba, doubly humiliated by the warrior Bhishma. First, for having been taken from the one she loved, and then, for having been rejected by the victor, doomed to celibacy. Transformed into a man, after the intervention of the god Shiva, she will kill her intimate enemy in a fight which will also be fatal to her.
Strings, winds and electric guitar
The infinitely rich text by Karthika Naïr is divided between a supreme narrator (Fiona Tong, haughty) and four sung roles (the two main protagonists and two royal servants). It also determines a very colorful choreography that Shobana Jeyasingh articulates with efficiency within a staging that is alternately sober and sumptuous. Floriaan Ganzevoort’s lighting is magical. Merle Hensel’s simple and modular decorations take advantage of this to pass in the blink of an eye from abstraction to symbolism.
A true bard of this edifying spectacle, Thierry Pécou delivers here one of his most beautiful scores. The prologue is from the same barrel as its large orchestral pages, symphony du jaguar (2001-2005) or stone wave (2005), although the number ofUntil the Lions is much smaller: sixteen strings, nine winds, two percussionists and an electric guitar!
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