Like Flesh
For their first opera, the Israeli composer Sivan Eldar and her librettist Cordelia Lynn draw inspiration from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, a woman longs for a world beyond the limits of flesh and for an expression free from the conventions of human society. The secret desire of a young lover causes an explosive metamorphosis, transforming the woman into a tree and giving her freedom. But the world is as hostile to trees as it is to human beings, and in the heart of the forest, the lover and the forester claim this body of wood and leaves as their own, one for money, the other for love.
Sivan Eldar continues here the exploration, already begun in You'll drown, dear (2018) and Heave (2020), of the possibilities of electronic manipulation of the voice in the form of a long process of liberation and exposure in pursuit of clarity.
Like flesh - World Premiere
Commissioned by the Opéra de Lille, the Opéra Orchestre national de Montpellier, and the Opéra national de Lorraine
Chamber opera by Sivan Eldar
libretto Cordelia Lynn
Maxime Pascal conductor
Silvia Costa staging
Francesco d’Abbraccio AI video creation
Costumes Laura Dondoli
Andrea Sanson lights
Augustin Muller Ircam computer music design
Sound projection Florent Derex
Chorus master Alain Muller, Bianca Chillemi
Assistant to the musical director Richard Wilberforce
Assistant staging Gabrielė Bakšytė
Set design and props assistant Elena Zamparutti
Assistant director Alessio Valmori
With La Femme, the tree Helena Rasker, Le Forestier, her husband William Dazeley, Student Juliette Allen, the forest Adèle Carlier, Hélène Fauchère, Guilhem Terrail, Sean Clayton, René Ramos Premier, Florent Baffi
Ensemble Le Balcon and electronics
Images of Work #28 : Like flesh by Sivan Eldar
Screening on January 23 at 3pm, followed by a meeting with Sivan Eldar and the creative team.
A film by Christian Barani, in collaboration with Philippe Langlois
