Opéra Vagabond
"The laughter and jubilation that comedy scenes arouse in the theatre inspired Opéra Vagabond.
A show I wrote for lovers of beautiful voices, but also for an audience that would not spontaneously come to the opera — wagering on theatre, on popular yet demanding performance that one comes to see as a family".
Ce que nous raconte le porteur de projet
In the 1970s, when I was a teenager, I belonged to a touring company, the Théâtre du Mistral. For three summer months we travelled the roads of Provence, carrying the plays of the repertoire in our luggage and an immense excitement at the thought of bringing the verses of Molière, Chekhov or Frédéric Mistral before a rural — and often isolated — audience. In these villages, an ever-renewed stage offered itself to us, and we spent our afternoons before the performance choosing the right door for the ballet master’s entrance, spotting the staircase up to the bell tower for a spectacular appearance in the second act, or persuading a local to harness his cart and join in the show. The mayor, the priest and a few local figures would bend over backwards so that the show might find in their village its finest setting.
On the evening of the performance, the emotion was intense when, through the crack of a door, we glimpsed those chattering spectators who — because they all knew one another — called out, astonished to find themselves there, the improbable audience of a single evening. The performance went along briskly under the stars, and eyes widened. Almost the whole village was there.
After the show, and late into the night, we raised our glasses — actors and villagers alike — to the gods of theatre and to the patron saint of the place that welcomed them. Then we dismantled our picturesque set-up to set off in conquest of other squares and other spectators.
I was fifteen, and to this day that feeling of joy and freedom bound up with itinerancy has never left me; theatre and music are inextricably linked to it.
It is to recover this privileged contact with the public that I imagined Opéra Vagabond. Times have changed; cultural offerings, especially in music, have grown exponentially, and with the technical advances of broadcasting, music is at once everywhere and nowhere. Yet audiences remain unfailingly moved by live performance, by the closeness of the artists, by the concert when it comes to meet them stripped of all the trappings that can make it intimidating in a concert hall.
Opéra Vagabond lays claim to a form of popular education. With its original, entirely self-contained structure that is assembled and dismantled in a few hours before the inhabitants’ eyes, Opéra Vagabond takes over the village square and, in doing so, creates an event. Opera — which remains a very popular art form — unfolds at home, before the church doors, at the windows of the Town Hall and, leaving behind the formal frame that usually serves as its setting, comes to slip into people’s lives.
Jean Manifacier
Opéra
the genre
Nineteenth-century opera, combining music, theatre and dance, offers ideal dramaturgical material for shaping the central idea of the project: to captivate an intergenerational audience made up of newcomers and seasoned music lovers alike. The original scenario is written so that, over the course of the evening, the audience discovers the world of opera. It unveils its codes and its rules, the stock characters of its roles, and how the singers’ voices match them. It explores the feelings and the intrigues it delights in dissecting. We discover the repertoire, the singers’ vocal technique and the differences between their ranges — tenor, soprano, baritone and mezzo — along with the clichés that may attach to each.
the repertoire
We offer a repertoire drawn from the great Romantic operas of the nineteenth century. The Romantic period remains the one most deeply rooted in the collective memory and the most accessible to all audiences. This repertoire forms the musical foundation of an original scenario that takes up the codes of opera buffa. With a presenter as the thread running between the tableaux, the singers embody a succession of characters (Carmen, Don Carlo, Marguerite…).
interactivity
The presenter allows for great interactivity with the audience. He weaves bonds with the spectators, who, thanks to him, follow a true crash course — fast and playful — in becoming the ideal opera lover. They learn what a singer is, what a vocal range is, the character of a voice and the role that best suits it. We take care to use the performance venue in the staging: the spectators discover their village square in a new light. The houses, windows, bell tower, street corner and balconies are all used and showcased in the production.
Au grès des paysages
Many French villages — whether remote from the main routes or lacking in infrastructure — find themselves isolated: less passing trade, few cultural events. This situation is not inevitable, and it is to counter it that we decided to create this musical project: Opéra Vagabond.
Like Jean Villard in his day, the Opéra Vagabond project led by Autrement Classique sets out to meet audiences wherever they are, to share with them the very best. A popular, entertaining and educational show that sets music in motion towards those who have no access to it.
A lyric show that travels as invitations arise, visiting French villages over a period running from June to September. To place music back at the heart of the village, to involve its inhabitants, to invite young audiences to take part: such is the popular-education ambition of the Opéra Vagabond project.
The team is made up of four lyric singers — soprano, tenor, mezzo and baritone — together with a fortepianist.
A presenter and four technicians complete the line-up. The day before the concert, the technicians take over the venue chosen in advance and reserved for them (the village centre, the church or town-hall square…). The structure is assembled during the day before the performance, ready for the following day. For the artists, this is the moment to scout out — with the inhabitants who have agreed to play along — the staircases, balconies, doors and windows they will use during the show. It is also the time to rehearse with the young audience, if participatory work was set for them during the year. In the evening, the audience is welcomed for a concert lasting 1 hour 45 minutes.
On the programme: an entertaining, lively and interactive show built around the Romantic opera repertoire. Musical excellence is one of the project’s strengths. The singers and musicians who take part in the Opéra Vagabond tour all come from major European ensembles, or are graduates of the national conservatoires and opera studios.
An essential aspect of Opéra Vagabond is the emphasis placed on the excitement created by the meeting between the company and the inhabitants who have prepared for its arrival. This encounter takes place within the show, of course, but also — and differently — before and after it, through a process of cultural mediation (see the historical ERARD piano, a vehicle for cultural mediation) and exchange with the public throughout the year.
After the show, the team and the audience gather for a drink to prolong the encounter. For the inhabitants, it is a way of forging a simple and joyful relationship with classical music and its performers, of rediscovering the festive spirit and the exceptional character of such a visit to the public square. For the artists, it is a way of giving renewed meaning to their role as go-betweens.
GIACOMO ROSSINI
La pie voleuse : ouverture
JULES MASSENET
Manon : je suis encore toute étourdie
GUISEPPE VERDI
Othello : Credo de Iago (extrait)
JACQUES OFFENBACH
La belle Hélène : on me nomme Hélène la blonde
GAETANO DONIZETTI
La fille du régiment : salut à la France (extrait)
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Lucia di Lammermoor : cruda, funesta smania (extrait)
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Lucia di Lammermoor : sulla tomba che rinserra
ALMICALE PONCHIELLI
La Gioconda : La danse des heures
CHARLES GOUNOD
Faust : Marguerite, air des bijoux
GUISEPPE VERDI
Don Carlos : monologue de Philippe II (extrait parlé)
AMBROISE THOMAS
Hamlet : o vin dissipe la tristesse
JULES MASSENET
Werther : interlude acte IV
GIACCOMO ROSSINI
Le barbier de Séville : sérénade du comte
CAMILLE SAINT SAENS
Samson et Dalila : mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix
EDOUARD LALO
Le roi d’Ys : vainement ma bien aimée (extrait)
GEORGES BIZET
Carmen : l'amour est enfant de bohème
CHARLES GOUNOD
Romeo et Juliette : je veux vivre
JACQUES OFFENBACH
Les contes d’Hoffmann : scintille diamant
RICHARD WAGNER
Tristan et Isolde : prélude
JACQUES OFFENBACH
Les contes d’Hoffmann : barcarolle
LUDVIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Fidelio : Mir ist so wunderbar
GEORGES BIZET
Carmen : duo Escamillo / Don José
PIOTR ILLITCH TCHAÏKOVSKI
Eugene Onegin : air de Lensky
CHARLES GOUNOD
Faust : anges purs, anges radieux... (extrait)
GUISEPPE VERDI
Traviata : brindisi
