On November 18-19, 2002, at the Grand Théâtre in Angers, France, composer Philippe Leroux staged his first opera based on the Paul Claudel play L'Annonce faite à Marie (The Annunciation of Marie), commissioned by the Angers-Nantes Opéra for the occasion. The dramatic intensity of this "mystery," which haunted the famous playwright for nearly five decades, represents an exceptional transformation of stage play to opera, especially through Leroux's meticulous work on the relationships between voices and instruments. The talents of the six singers and nine instrumentalists here reveal the depths of Claudel's text, marvelously wrought by Leroux's compositions and Célie Pauthe's staging.
For Pauthe, "exaltation and base instincts, flesh and spirit, heaven and Earth clash as they seek harmony, the quest of a lifetime, and of a work" in this drama that revisits the figure of the Virgin Mary. The power of this interpretation is also accentuated by the voice of Claudel himself, synthesized by Leroux and the technical wizards at the renowned IRCAM, which gives new meaning to the idea of an "opera of words," a notion dearly held by the author. The action unfolds on a farm in the Tardenois region of France, where Claudel spent the first three years of his life with his brother Camille, a choice which further imbricates performer and audience alike in the intimate imaginary of the work's creator.
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