After his movie in the body the director is directing an opera magic flute, by Mozart.
Cedric Klapish takes his first steps in the Opera. magic flute, By Mozart, a journey from darkness to light, the director slides from family chronicle to initiation fable. For this production, she chose a nature-focused reading. Explanations:
Madame Figaro. – What is the origin of this project?
Cedric Klapish.– It all started when the director of the Champs Elysees theater in Paris, Michel Frank, asked me to stage an opera. He thought Bohemianby Puccini. I replied that you must love music and offered Magic flute. This opera not being staged in this theater for a long time, he accepted. It was four years ago.
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It was like that before your movie in the body which notably takes place at the Opéra Garnier…
Yes, right before. But Michel Frank already knew my taste in dance and performing arts in general. I am eclectic in music. love modern as well as classic. While working flute, I noticed that my father, who listened to a lot of opera, was humming the airwaves. In fact, it was at home.
Is this your favorite opera?
There is Carmen, that I love, and then? Don Giovanni, Traviata…
How did you approach Opera?
First, through music, which I have listened to a lot. Then I read the booklet. Finally, I watched videos. None of the productions I’ve seen have satisfied me, it’s left me a bit at ease. There are figures like Peter Brook or Bob Wilson whose productions I wanted to see but couldn’t find recordings of. Then I thought. “It’s not that bad. They don’t come to parasitize me.”
As a film director, you have a rather realistic approach. Here you move to the iconic…
All the films I have made have a realistic universe, except Maybe, which tells the story of Paris in 2070. It’s a slightly surreal waiting film, a phantasmagoria. Theater requires the transportation of reality. In flute, more than in other operas, there is a desire to be magical, fantastic. I had to find a holiday.
How did you do it?
I respected the work as much as possible, avoiding anything I didn’t want to discuss, such as Freemasonry or religion. I try to have strong characters on stage. We started designing the scene a year and a half ago with the young director Cleman Bezat. My ideas were too realistic. And I realized that I need a symbolic vision and that I try not to do what I know.
Get out of your comfort zone…
I said to myself. “Go. You don’t know opera or theater, it’s time to invent. At worst… it’s a failure.”
In Magic Flutemore than in other operas, there is a desire to be magical, fantastic
Cedric Klapish
Tell us about Stéphane Rolland’s costumes?
He comes from haute couture. And I wanted visually assured costumes, something creative that places the viewer in an unreal, enchanted world. For the sets, we collaborated with an Italian architect specializing in digital imagery. Backgrounds are oversized photos made with artificial intelligence.
And the animal of this opera, what is the famous snake like?
In the productions I’ve seen, the snake is either a giant puppet or a video projection. We chose to paint. And we called on artist Stefan Blanke, who also has a very strong universe.
Where are you with the rehearsals?
We shot Act One this morning. It was the first time I saw something slightly structured… The collaboration with the conductor Francois-Xavier Roth is going very well. Music guides the performance. Mozart’s work is complex: both solemn, academic, sometimes military, and joyful, childish, deliberately clownish. We pass from buffoonery to something philosophical and serious. It is singspiel by Mozart. Play on contrasts. This is what Francois-Xavier looks for when he talks to singers or an orchestra. And I use these contrasts to create style.
The goal is for the audience to hear the music as well as possible.
Cedric Klapish
When you make a movie, you choose your actors. In the opera, it is the casting and theater managers who order the artists… Is it difficult?
It is the first time that I did not choose the performers, I was very afraid of it. Michel Frank told me: “Trust me. you will love them.’ And so it is. I discover them, I have to build with them little by little. The opposite of my usual approach. There is a way to find a way between the character and the performer. But I feel like I’m working with Ferraris. There is real mutual respect. My fears disappeared.
Your performance is aimed at nature…
I started with the philosophy of the Enlightenment, the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. According to him, man has involvement in nature, which he must respect and guide at the same time. Here’s what it says Flute. A fight is going on between Sarastro, who stands on the side of civilization and education, and the queen of the night, who embodies the wildness of nature.
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And what did you do with these characters?
I tried to make Queen of the Night more positive and Sarastro a little negative. He is very macho. He is a man of power, a representative of the patriarchy. I am currently rereading. Today, there are things to erase, difficult to convey, such as, for example, the fact that we should not trust women. My performance is based on this nature-civilization-woman-man quartet.
So are you classic or modern?
I don’t know how to answer this question. There are disruptors, some provocateurs, respecters of heritage. I’m somewhere in between. The goal is for the audience to hear the music as well as possible.
magic flute, by Mozart, directed by Cédric Klapisch, directed by François-Xavier Roth, six performances, November 14 to 24, at the Champs-Elysées Theater in Paris. theatrechampselysees.fr:
Source: Le Figaro
