Victor Jacob conducts the World Premiere of Le Navire aux Voiles Mauves
31st May, 2022; 20:00
Maison de la Radio et de la Musique
Victor Jacob conducts this exciting collaboration between Radio France, VOX Interactive Choir and choirs and an orchestra of students from establishments in the academies of Paris and Versailles. This is the culmination of a one-year project which ends tonight on the stage of the Auditorium of Radio France.
Le Navire aux voiles mauves or ‘The Ship with the Purple Sails’ is a dramatic action in 2 tableaux and 16 scenes and recounts the Return of Ulysses through new adventures.
The twenty original poems of the work, written by Gilbert Lascault, form a fantastic archipelago in this odyssey of a new genre halfway between opera and musical theatre, oratorio and dramatic action.
Lascault has invented a modern Odyssey, one in which each of us goes on an adventure. Like Ulysses and his companions, we will encounter fantastic islands and lovers, but we will also come up against terrible volcanoes and strange characters like Circe the enchantress, or the Sirens whose song bewitches the sailors.
Composer Bruno Ducol writes:
“You can guess that this ‘Ship with Purple Sails’ is a quasi initiatory show. By becoming aware of our environment - of happy islands and love, but also of climate change, wars and earthquakes...we want to share all this through play, music and to share all this by playing, singing and shouting together.”
The soloists are our protagonists while the chorus represent Ulysses’ companions throughout the journey into the unknown.
There are also prerecorded virtual characters and sounds, making use of several electronic effects. Although they are virtual, the volcanic boiling of Etna, the eruptions of Krakatau or the rumours of Piton de la Fournaise will appear, as if we were there as if we were there, and several times during the show.
Cast and Creatives
BRUNO DUCOL - Composer
GILBERT LASCAULT - Librettist
VICTOR JACOB direction
PAULINE LEROY - Mezzo-soprano
RONAN NÉDÉLEC - Baritone
Musicians of the RACINE HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRA
JANSON DE SAILLY AND LAMARTINE COLLEGE CHORUS (PARIS)
LES PIERRES VIVES HIGH SCHOOL CHOIR (CARRIERE-SUR-SEINE)
Amandine Trenc - Virtual Choir
Lorenzo Brondetta - Video Direction