Zwolle, Netherlands (Les Enfants Terribles)

https://operazuid.nl/en/performance/les-enfants-terribles/#playlist-section
 

Les Enfants Terribles 

Gérard tells the story of his friends, brother Paul and sister Lise, who live in their own fantasy world. Orphaned and dependent on each other, they spend their days in their room, where they play the ‘game’. Gérard is Paul and Lise’s only friend and link to the outside world. As they grow older, their intense bond becomes increasingly destructive. When it becomes too oppressive for Lise, she starts working as a model and meets Agathe there. What started as a childish fantasy grows into a web in which everyone becomes entangled.

Four singers, an actor and three pianos. That’s all it takes to tell a gripping story about the driving, transcendent and sometimes destructive power of imagination.

Philip Glass’ chamber opera Les Enfants Terribles Philip Glass’ is based on the 1929 novel of the same name by French poet, writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. The music is, in the words of director Béatrice Lachaussée, ‘enchanting, fascinating, hypnotic, sometimes cheerful and sometimes oppressive’. Glass is known for his repetitive minimal music. In Les Enfants Terribles, this music immediately evokes strong images. For Lachaussée, the music describes life, which just keeps going on and on, with ups and downs. There is no escape: once you get on that carousel, you have to finish the ride…