“A Trip to the Moon”, From Offenbach to Olivier Fredj

After recording an album on the Montpellier scene with Bru Zane Label and a successful tour throughout France, The Journey to the Moon by Jacques Offenbach is finally on display at the Opéra Comédie. Initially scheduled for December 2020, the performances were canceled due to the health crisis.

Inspired by the science fiction novel From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, this fairytale opera adapted by director Olivier Fredj offers a dreamlike setting to a swirling score and its two famous ballets. The characters sketched with humor unfold two mirrored universes, the better to mock their era, but we recognize a political and social satire with contemporary echoes.

Magical otherness

“ This is a very “earthly” paradox, explain Olivier Fredj, our societies and cultures, particularly Western ones, are convinced that they have traveled the world, that they know everything. » He describes it as “ magical otherness », the encounter with the Other and appreciates the ironic dimension of Journey to the Moon which mocks the vanity of man.

The inhabitants of Earth consider themselves to be the only inhabitants of the universe. Dispatched by a shell launched from a cannon, what is not the surprise of King V’lan (the tenor Florent Karrer), of his son Prince Caprice – the mezzo-soprano Marie Perbost -, and the Minister-Savant Microscope (the tenor Carl Ghazarossian) to their discovery of the inhabitants of the Moon. The “Selenites” also believe that the Other does not exist.

On the Moon, customs and lifestyles were constructed in opposition to the values ​​of Western society. Faced with the agitation caused by the arrival of these strange visitors, King Cosmos interpreted by the bass-baritone Thibaut Desplantes – already very noticed in 2017 at the Opéra Comédie for his role in The Shadow of Wenceslas -, has them imprisoned. His wife, Reine Popotte (the mezzo-soprano Marie Lenormand) manages to free them.

And Prince Caprice falls in love with Princess Fantasia (the coloratura soprano Sheva Tehoval). But she cannot share her feelings because on the Moon, the feeling of love does not exist. He is even reprobated. But when the princess bites an apple, her heart becomes sensitive. The trouble begins! Because as Cosmos told his “guests”, women can only be useful or decorative. The lovers are considered sick, Fantasia is therefore summoned before the medical profession. As she does not listen to reason, the sovereign decides to sell her to the women’s market.

Live from a movie studio

If in the 19th century, Censorship intervened for the image of King V’lan – astronomers are made more respectful towards this character -, the women’s market was in no way shocking, nor the dialogues which assimilate them to merchandise : “ It’s labeled, classified, well marked. »

The presentation of a world with inverted values ​​reveals a magnifying glass effect. On the Moon, honesty is punished, absurdity reigns. The tables are shifted with anachronistic episodes which denounce financial speculation, “ the wound » of that time.

When the subject of this fairy opera is proposed to Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), director of the Théâtre de la Gaîté, he categorically refused it because of the expenses that this creation must incur. But as soon as he no longer acts as director, Offenbach agrees to carry out the orchestration and the success is immediate. At the start of the Third Republic, the star of the composer of German origin faded. There was the 1870-1871 war and the name of the inventor of the operetta is strongly linked to the Second Empire.

The Journey to the Moon with its fabulous sets, its lighting, the costumes then constitute the beginnings of special effects productions. Georges Méliès for his cult film of 1902 was greatly inspired by this piece. In this artistic continuity, Olivier Fredj’s stage system is based on live filming in a film studio. The opera is produced before the eyes of the spectators. The stagehands are seven acrobat-dancers who play on the fascination of the industrial revolution and progress.

Music under the baton of Victor Jacob – revelation of the Victoires de la Musique 2023 – is crossed by emblematic duets, the choirs, the joyful dynamics of the score.

Fatma Alilate

The Journey to the Moon –Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)

Comedy Opera, Montpellier

Booklet: Albert Vanloo, Eugene Leterrier, Arnold Mortier

Four Acts, Twenty-three Pictures

Created in October 1975 – Théâtre de la Gaîté

Adaptation ofOlivier Fredj

Victor Jacobmusical direction; Olivier Fredjstaging

With : Sheva TehovalFantasy ; Jennifer MichelFlamma-Adja; Marie LenormandQueen Popotte; Marie PerbostPrince Caprice; Florent KarrerKing V’lan; Yoann Le LanQuipasseparia; Carl GhazarossianMicroscopes; Thibaut DesplantesCosmos; Christophe Poncet de SolagesCactus

Anouk Viale, choreography; Jean Lecointreartistic direction; Malika Chauveaudecorations and costumes; Nathalie PerrierLights

Noelle Génychoir director; Montpellier National Opera Choir ; Montpellier Occitanie National Orchestra

Acrobat dancers

Sung and subtitled in French.

Sunday December 15 at 5:00 p.m.; Tuesday December 17 at 7:00 p.m., Friday December 20 at 8:00 p.m., Sunday December 22 at 5:00 p.m.

Photos: “A Trip to the Moon” Offenbach – Opéra Comédie (c) Marc Ginot-OONM

The Opéra Orchester national Montpellier Occitanie is the only establishment in France to offer its spectators new video games inspired by the operas in its programmingthanks to the collaboration initiated in 2017 with the ARTFX school specializing in visual effects, animation and video games.

The video game The Awakening of Fantasia available for download can be discovered free of charge at the Opéra Comédie from December 15 to 22, during performances of the Journey to the Moon. Affected by the feminist message carried by the work, the students revisited the scene of the women’s market and designed an escape game in which the player embodies Fantasia, young Selenite princesslocked up by her father King Cosmos because of her romantic feelings.