For more than three centuries, new operas have been born in the heart of Brussels, a tradition we are proud to continue in the 21st century. Because we firmly believe that The Great Repertoire is not a closed book, but a story to which each era can add its own chapter, full of exciting music, relevant themes and innovative writing. Our era too. That is why we will present one or two brand new commissioned works every season until 2025. You can follow the preparations for these unique productions on this blog.
The last straight line! Today, in our Malibran room, the final rehearsal series for this world creation begins. The cast and the team around director Ingrid von Wantoch Rekowski have exactly two weeks left to fuse all the prepared material into one impressive live experience.
"It's a vicious piece, but it makes me laugh out loud when I'm composing it." Over a coffee, the composer Philippe Boesmans explains what attracted him to Georges Feydeau's vaudeville On purge bébé, and where he stands with his work.
Solar (Icarus burning) takes inspiration from the late 16th Century painting by Pieter Brueghel Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, that hangs in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Brussels, as well as W.H. Auden’s response to seeing the painting during his visit to Brussels in 1938:
‘In Brueghel’s Icarus for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster’
In March 2023, composer Howard Moody will follows in Auden’s footsteps and takes another look at Brueghel’s picture. When moving the picture to a contemporary stage, Daedalus and his team of scientists and innovators have to focus their work on sustainable innovation. Icarus is expected to have full awareness of the natural world yet still have courage to test its boundaries. The crowd must face the potential disaster rather than turn away, questioning its own part in the action. The ancient proverb “en de boer hij ploegde voort” (and the farmer continued ploughing) is no longer an adequate defence.
'Decipherable only by me'. The score-in-progress of On purge bébé, on the table of composer Philippe Boesmans.
In the 2022-23 season, La Monnaie does justice to its reputation as a house of creations. Besides On purge bébé, General and Artistic Director Peter de Caluwe also announced Solar during today's season presentation. This new 'environmental opera' by composer Howard Moody is based on Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. Follow its creation on this page.
The word is out! Today, La Monnaie presents its new 2022-23 season. Discover the full cast and all the performance dates of On purge bébé now on this page of the La Monnaie website.
Just when Bastien Follavoine is about to close the deal of his life with a representative of the French army, his beloved Julie - still in peignoir! - keeps bothering him with the issue of their slightly constipated son Toto. It does not help to bring domestic peace... After Au monde and Pinocchio, the French baritone and MM Ambassador Stéphane Degout has signed on again for a leading role in the latest opera of Philippe Boesmans, who knows better than anyone how to compose for his voice.
He comes for an order of unbreakable chamber pots for the army, he stays to share all his experience of intestinal problems with the Follavoine family. And then there is the matter of his adulterous wife... Meet Aristide Chouilloux, or... Julien Behr.
No one escapes the expanding dreamworld of Is this the End?#2. From treacherous sphinxes to sneaky goblins: our Chorus has been utterly transformed.
On the occasion of an interview with Philippe Boesmans for this blog, our in-house photographer Simon Van Rompay took the opportunity to immortalise the Belgian composer, during his work on the end of his new opera...