L'Annonce faite à Marie
"L'annonce faite à Marie is a text that is both carnal and spiritual. Claudel's writing, extraordinarily accurate, both when he speaks of love and metaphysics, is similar to my work, which seeks a balance between the corporality of sound and abstract constructions." "I wanted to get closer to the famous 'opera of words', as Paul Claudel himself put it (using Claudelian free verse), by composing an opera that is both dramatic and poetic. The vocal writing oscillates between musical passages where the text is sung in a perfectly comprehensible way, and narrations which offer a 'floating' listening, proposing the listener to freely associate the words with one another. In the moments of declamation, the text is recited with a musical texture made of a synthesis of Claudel's voice, realized at IRCAM by a synthesis system using neural networks. The idea is to stage the author himself musically, as if he were dreaming, writing his text, reciting it to himself, or guiding us in our listening."
(Philippe Leroux.)
Opera in French in 4 acts, prologe by Philippe Leroux, based on the eponymous play by Paul Claudel – Premiere 2022
Philippe Leroux music
Commissioned by Angers Nantes Opéra
Célie Pauthe set design
Solène Souriau assistant set design
Guillaume Delaveau scenography
Anaïs Romand costumes
Sébastien Michaud lighting
François Weber images
Denis Loubaton dramaturgy
Raphaèle Fleury libretto, based on the works of Paul Claudel
Carlo Laurenzi IRCAM electronics
Clément Cerles IRCAM sound diffusion
Ensemble Cairn
Guillaume Bourgogne musical directon
Raphaële Kennedy (Violaine Vercors) soprano
Sophia Burgos (Mara Vercors) mezzo-soprano
Els Jannssens Vanmunster (Elisabeth Vercors) mezzo-soprano
Marc Scoffoni (Anne Vercors) baryton
Charles Rice (Jacques Hury) baryton
Vincent Bouchot (Pierre de Craon) tenor