Yonas wants to avenge her mother but waived

The decor of George Tsypîn is simple, of disturbing beauty in its nudity and its counting: a few poor houses, white, very low cutting on a black background. The country is in war it might be in Europe from the East, the former Yugoslavia, for example, an "injured community" as said Amin Maalouf. But "adriana Mater" leaves little room for realism; is it is exacerbated and nightmare, or it gives way to the dream then, buildings to illuminate the Interior, becoming intangible and the shadows of the figures are those of giants. It is in this framework which leaves any freedom to the imagination that Peter Sellars part minimalist, hieratic staged, where actions are rare, where the tension continues to mount, since rape musically suggested in the first stage Act, to the final in the second forgiveness, even more successful, and poignant.

The first force "adriana Mater", is the Maalouf booklet, this rich, generous, colourful language, these indiscriminate and phrases that don't lie. Maternity, forgiveness, reconciliation: could not find more beautiful themes to lend to the lyricism of an opera. Raped by Tsargo, Adriana updates the Yonas world. Seventeen years later, the young man tells the truth about his birth. Tsargo returned to the country, blind. Yonas wants to avenge her mother but waived. Love can overcome everything, including the bloodiest conflicts: the message is clear, it is one of those that are needed.

The music seems to explode

Here is new the duo formed Maalouf/Kaija Saariaho, who had a first success with "Love", by far, created at the Salzburg Festival in 2000 and again at the Châtelet. Except that this time, it is the universe of Jaufre Rudel, the troubadour love. The poetry of 'adriana Mater' exposes without shame its violence, and the music of Finnish composer bears the trace. Much more varied, more raw in its colors. With still long phrases that leave to éployer their melody (the entrance of Adriana), dialogues with the support of the notes required of most figures, but also moments where the music seems to explode such a load of explosives. It is present with the Ircam, to amplify and spatialize certain sounds or choirs, but his intervention is unobtrusive. Very dense, dramatic, dark, the partition occupies a villain Orchestra, use brass exacerbate rising to the point, but can also alleviate without losing his power of emotion.

ESA Pekka Salonen leads with this mixture of rigour and enthusiasm that makes him one of the leaders of the time. Under the leadership of Sellars, the singers are tragédiens. A shadow table, yet: unfamiliar of the French language, it is understood hardly what they say, as the Orchestra dominates and that they seem a bit drowned in the audio stream. But Patricia Bardon offers Adriana a disturbing vocals and evocative stamp, Solveig Kringelborn camped Refka, her sister, with pugnacity, Stephen Milling, in Tsargo, the thick brute password to the defeated pitiful, and Gordon Gietz know translate the path of Yonas to compassion. Co-produced with the Finnish national opera, this world premiere is one of the strengths of the Parisian opera season. The Bastille can be proud.