LE SILENCE DES OMBRES

With his sublimely disturbing theatre works, the Belgian Nobel laureate Maurice Maeterlinck laid the groundwork for the 20th century theatre. Today, his Trois petits drames pour marionettes form the libretto for a new opera, commissioned by la Monnaie. Entitled Le silence des ombres, French composer-donductor Benjamin Attahir and director Olivier Lexa opt decisively for the invisible and the unsayable to recreate a triptych of repression bursting to escape. 

THE DEATH OF TINTAGILES

The Queen, who has complete control over her servants and people, has killed most of the Tintagiles family. Now she is after the small boy himself. His sisters Ygraine and Bellangère do everything in their power to try and protect him, but nobody has ever managed to escape the menacing force that resides in the castle...

INTERIOR

The Old Man and the Stranger appear outside a house in which a family can be seen through the windows. Their daughter’s body has just been recovered from the river where she drowned. The two Men are running out of time: a crowd is approaching from the village with the body. How should they break the news?

ALLADINE AND PALOMIDES  

The wise old King Ablamore falls in love with a young slave, Alladine, but he doesn’t deceive himself: “The sadness of love that comes too late”. Enter Palomides, the fiancé of his daughter, Astolaine. One look and he, too, instantly falls in love with Alladine. Astolaine reproachlessly supports the lovers’ treason against the vengeful Ablamore.

Le silence des ombres is a creation commissioned by la Monnaie, premiering at KVS.