Unfinished operas, after two short stories by Edgar Allan Poe - Music Claude Debussy
Amphithéâtre de l’Opéra Bastille, Opéra National de Paris, 2012
CAST
Musical director, Jeff Cohen
Staging and videos, Jean-Philippe Clarac & Olivier Deloeuil
Set and Lighting design, Rick Martin
Philipp Addis (Roderick Usher), Valérie Condoluci (Madeline Usher), Alexandre Duhame (Le Médecin), Alexandre Pavloff, de la Comédie Française, Damien Pass (L'Ami)
PRODUCTION
Opéra National de Paris (adapted from the OFNY production)
In partnership with Clarac-Deloeuil > le lab
ABOUT
Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s Devil in the Belfry & Fall of the House of Usher, this experimental program unites artistic themes common to Debussy and Poe, including their quintessential romantic taste for neurotic characters, strange settings, and the macabre. Conceived for four singers, one actor and a concert pianist, the entire production takes place in Roderick Usher’s private library, within the House of Usher. Revealed at the end of the satirical monologue (Devil in the Belfry), it becomes the “House” of the two Usher siblings. As the story unfolds, the impressive library, initially pristine and neat, slowly “dies” along with them. By the end of the show, the “damaged” bookcase is almost empty, leaving the dead characters lying on the stage, now an impressive mess of books and lethal literary passions.
