Paris, Garnier : 1) Bartok, Le Château de Barbe-Bleue.Poulenc, 2) La Voix Humaine . Cond E-P Salonen ( 29/XI/15).

Tremendous applause, first for:

 Opera de Paris Orchestra :
Standing ovation from me on this Sunday afternoon!
                                Esa Pekka Salonen:
conductiong   Bela Bartok ' s BlueBeard Castle and Francis Poulenc's Human Voice, in a breathtaking way with no interval between the two works.
    Then,          The singers:
                                 Ekaterina Gubanova,  Judith, in Le Château de Barbe -Bleue:
splendid mezzo soprano with warm voice, who creates in acting and singing the growing fear focused not only  on the Castle and its seven rooms, but also on the Duke.   While he assures her of his love, that this love will give life back to the stern castle and his soul, she fears his hands could strangle her fragile neck. I was in a smashing spot at the front row of a box overlooking the  orchestra and stage ,and could witness her  growing panic : while he was putting his hands around her neck...She managed while singing and acting to make us feel her fear to the point she wants to flee.
                                   John Relyea, Le Duc Barbe-Bleue:
His deep voice is as immense as his height, very elegant, giving with his sombre voice a rather melancholic vision of the Duke. This vision  is v linked to his chilhood:  the young duke  appears on stage, stroking his little white rabbit, are they projections of Judith's insights in his psyche ? the interaction of her curiosity  to solve the mystery of the Castle and its Master? There are also the upsetting visions of the Duke as a child shading a tear of blood which grows bigger and bigger.. this is not the only disquieting projection during the opera. Denis Guéguin is K. Warlikowski 's faithful artist in charge of these visions in almost all his works, and does it with great artistry).
                                   Barbara Hannigan- Elle:

 No words can give a fair account of what she is, does,  performs, on stage as Elle, the only character on stage of La Voix Humaine.
(in this production there is the creation of the man she is deadly in love with, who appears as a projection of her mental hallucination, blood is also a kind of Ariadne's thread with le Château. Her lover  is covered in blood, evidently she shot him in her hallucinations while she is talking to him on the phone for the last time, that is one solution which came to my mind while attending this amazing work last Saturday at Garnier's).
                                   Krystof Warlikowski:
                             What enhanced these rather short scores is  this coupling of Bluebeard Castle with The Human Voice by K. Warlikowski.
   These two dramas follow two women's fate: Judith and Elle. their obvious link  is passion, as a devastating feeling in both tales ending by death, Judith's death is a symbolic one,  Elle's one is down to earth, she shots herself after the murder of her lover. For The Human Voice, this is a' parti prix 'which is not Cocteau's one. But as it is produced, I felt it was a 'coup de génie' although I am aware it will not be appreciated by all. There is the strong link of the setting in both operas:  the glass boxes sliding when the seven doors open ( it is an easy device to dsplay what is it each room according to the fairy tale, which was projected during  Bluebeard Castle, and ended on the words said by la Bête  and is also used for the hallucinated visions projected by Elle: her lover bleeding  in front of television which is on, but I could not see what was on, perhaps the Cocteau film la Belle et la Bête? their beloved dog by his side, a real one, gorgeous!then he tried to pull himself up and joined her on the couch at the front, bleeding all over his white shirt, he also looks like the Duke)
Only a multi-talended artist like Barbara Hannigan can embody this new 'Elle'. She gave a long moving monologue, terribly upsetting to the point I was hoping for the last note to come fast! 
As soon as Judith, Queen of the  Duke's Night  for ever, disappears in this kind of Glass Menagerie, Elle appears  from the rear stage, staggering on  high heels,  seeming lost, pistol in hand.
This is a shocking and   brilliant jump into Poulenc's drama revisited by  K. Warlikowsky.'s direction.
I  hardly  had time to breathe in between the two operas, the orchestra soon  took over from the gorgeous, thundering, Bartok 's sound to the incidious, sharp, almost minimalist Poulenc's phrases of this dialogue from orchestra  to the singer Elle-Barbara Hannigan.

What is offered on stage for less than two hours is mesmerizing:
The added introduction to the afternoon has a strong link to illusion, deeply rooted in childhood: but it is also an adult vision of split personality, are we also on stage ? Judith is witnessing the drama from the front row of the parterre like us then is standing behind the conductor as an actress, while Barbara Hannigan is the  glamorous magician's assistant, under his spells  she offers us a levitation short show then goes away with the little white rabbit nested on her breast,  the magician gave life to two white turtles and a nice little rabbit. This couple, magician and assistant,  will be the Duke and Elle:Bluebeard comes from Charles Perrault's fairy tales and Elle from Jean Coscteau who also created La Belle et la Bête which is Ariadne's thread for Warlikowski Bluebeard Castle.
We are invited to start from Childhood and then witness a mad scene rewritten by K. Warlikowski which focuses on strong turmoils of love lost, solitude, threats of suicide, and hallucination of murder (my interpretation).

Whatwith a superlative orchestra and very accurate, radiant voices,  I felt completely  overwhelmed by this production ...I still have the illusion of a 'tour de force ' from all the protagonists of this adventure.:
References to catch these works on television and radio:
Mezzo TV Dec 10 8.30pm.
France Musique DEC Sat 19 - 7pm to 11pm
Some pictutes from my spendid spot, I could see scores... somehow!

The artists:
 Paris sera toujours Paris!
HEUREUSEMENT.