The Earth Factory - Lille Opera house (2024) - Die Erdfabrik - Opéra de Lille (2024)

Description

French Premiere.

Let's not be afraid to say it: some artists are deeper than others. So when the august Ruhtriennale, one of the most prestigious artistic institutions across the Rhine, suggested to Georges Aperghis to imagine a piece of musical theater in this mining region, the great contemporary composer, far from giving in to the temptation of the monumental , instead focused on the most buried matter.
With the writer and philosopher Jean-Christophe Bailly, he wanted a form close to chamber opera, for a hypnotic dive into the strata of this “earth factory”, which reaches the mine from the bottom. A singer, four musicians, the lights and shadows of a black and white film… For Jean-Christophe Bailly: “Hidden from view and itself condensed from obscurity, coal is nevertheless the distant descendant of light , which he continues to collect brilliantly. » Aperghis, for his part, wants to offer fuel for the imagination: “Concert? Facility ? Show ? Nothing so precise but rather a seesaw leading from one to the other. »
A spectacle capable of transporting itself lightly from the Rhineland to another mining region, that of Hauts-de-France, and illuminating its depths with a new light. The opportunity to rekindle the flame of the unforgettable Storm Warning that the composer gave at the Lille Opera in 2004 and to reunite with George Aperghis in this anniversary year.

More information is available on the official website of the opera house.