Edwin Crossley-Mercer

For years, *The Magic Flute* has been one of the most frequently performed operas at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. After an eight-year absence, Mozart’s work is now back on the programme. Clément Cogitore interprets the plot as a modern coming-of-age story: Tamino and Pamina leave the world of childhood behind and enter a reality in which beauty is fragile and truth is uncertain.

Les Boréades, this great life lesson delivered by a nearly 80-year-old Rameau, a carpe diem forged to the very essence of the dances, orders us to choose love over power, freedom over love. The most striking thing is without a doubt the intelligence of an actor’s direction that osmotically blends music, theater and ballet, encompassing expression, sensitivity, humor, narration and psychology in a single gesture.

With “Antigone,” the Philharmonie de Paris serves as the setting for a world premiere: an “operatorio” by Pascal Dusapin, brought to life by Christel Loetzsch in the title role, conducted by Klaus Mäkelä and directed by Netia Jones.

Mozart's masterpiece in a new production by Jean-Yves Ruf for the Dijon Opera! Should we introduce the opera of all operas, this ultimate mythical opera? It is the story of a seducer, during the last day before he falls to Hell, always trying to play with love and pleasures. This myth inspired numerous writers and composers, including Hoffmann, Kierkegaard, Wagner and yet always remains inspiring. With his wonderful and moving score, Mozart mixes humour with drama in this opera that always fascinated people. And this work has not yet unveiled all its secrets...

Clément Cogitore adapts a short ballet excerpt from Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Indes galantes, with the help of a group of Krump dancers and three choreographers on the 3rd Stage of the Paris Opera: Bintou Dembele, Igor Caruge, and Brahim Rachiki. Krump is a dance style that originated in the ghettos of Los Angeles in the 1990s. It emerged as a result of the riots and brutal police repression that followed the beating of Rodney King.

Les Indes Galantes (The amorous indies), is an opera-ballet created by Jean Philippe Rameau in 1735. He was inspired for one of the dance by tribal Indian dances of Louisiana performed by Metchigaema chiefs, in Paris in 1723. Clément Cogitore adapts a short part of the ballet by mobilizing a group of Krump dancers, an art form born in Los Angeles black ghetto in the 1990s. Its birth occurred in the aftermath of the beating up of Rodney King and the riots, as well as police repression it triggered. Amidst this coercive atmosphere, young dancers started to embody the violent tensions of the physical, social and political body. Both the tribal dance performed in Paris in 1723, and the rebelious Krump dancers of the 1990s shape a reenactment of Rameau’s original libretto, staging young people dancing on the verge of a volcano.

Hervé Niquet presents in Paris his interpretation of Castor and Pollux, one of the most appreciated lyrical tragedies of the great baroque composer, in its version of 1754.