House of Creations

Tonight is the premiere of our concert performance of Parsifal. On purge bébé too contains a tongue-in-cheek musical reference to Richard Wagner's final and most mystical work. For composer Philippe Boesmans, an ardent Wagnerian in his youth, still had to square his account with the Meister of Bayreuth...

In just a few days, Bassem Akiki, conductor of On purge bébé but also a composer himself (see Amor fati), wrote a new piece for the memorial service for Philippe Boesmans: PhiPhinomaenon - a musical ode to the phenomenon of 'Phiphi', as the composer was affectionately called by his closest acquaintances. Two cellos (La Monnaie musicians Sébastien Walnier and Corinna Lardin) represent respectively the composer and the conductor of an opera, engaged in their artistic dialogue. Offstage, clarinettist Paolo Poma plays excerpts from various operas by Philippe Boesmans - from Reigen, Pinocchio, but also from On purge bébé...

Today La Monnaie bade farewell to Philippe Boesmans with a moving commemoration in our Main Auditorium. Musicians and artists with whom Philippe had worked closely throughout his glorious career brought a selection of his compositions or recalled his memories. Composers Kris Defoort and Bassem Akiki, who will conduct On purge bébé in December, had even written a new work for the occasion.

"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.

'Decipherable only by me'. The score-in-progress of On purge bébé, on the table of composer Philippe Boesmans.

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, ofte... Julien Behr.

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...

"Constipation is no laughing matter!" The character of Julie Follavoine in On purge bébé has only one mission: her constipated son Toto must and will drink his laxative drink. Whether this is indeed something nót to laugh about, remains to be seen, but we do know one thing for sure: Jodie Devos is the perfect singer for this role. In this first of three cast reveals, the Belgian coloratura soprano looks forward to her first contemporary opera project.

Key moment for every opera in preparation: the presentation of the scenic concept, usually about a year before the premiere. Today, the artistic team presented On purge bébé to a selected group of collaborators from La Monnaie and coproduction partners Opéra de Lyon and Théâtre du Châtelet. Composer Philippe Boesmans himself provided the introduction to his seventh opera commissioned by La Monnaie, and was flanked by stage director Richard Brunel (also General and Artistic director of the Opéra de Lyon) and scenographer Etienne Pluss. The latter also unveiled the model of the set, which will lead to work sessions with the technical teams of La Monnaie in the coming days. Conductor Bassem Akiki contributed to this introduction via video call and was the only one to escape the mouth mask requirement.