L'Enfant et les Sortilèges (An Empty House)

The French writer Colette begins L'Enfant et les Sortilèges with a fantastic tantrum. The main character l'Enfant rebels and the living room bears the brunt: pieces of furniture, maths textbooks and even pets cannot escape his fury. His rebelliousness turns into surprise and remorse when all his victims – the clock, the teapot, the squirrel… – come to life one by one to seek revenge. Composer Maurice Ravel immediately fell in love with the imaginative libretto and worked for almost ten years on his opera, in which every enchanting interaction is a gem in itself, full of wonderful colours and melodies. Director Maëlle Dequiedt and her team – with the help of a stage and orchestra pit full of young, musical talent – place Ravel's fantaisie lyrique in a new frame story that transcends languages and times and brings strange and dark dimensions to light. Sometimes you have to go back in time to move forward – and vice versa.