LA MONNAIE / DE MUNT

It can be quite challenging to get hold of a conductor in the final stretch before an opera premiere, let alone when he’s conducting three productions at the same time. We did however manage to talk to Antonello Manacorda, who will guide our orchestra through the Trilogia Mozart Da Ponte, about the musical genius from Salzburg.

Whatever politicians may be claiming, nobody is better suited to embody “the voice of the people” than our Choir. From partying peasants to wide-awake soldiers, from experienced sailors to loyal servants: no challenge too great for our choristers. In the Trilogia Mozart Da Ponte, for once, they can just be themselves: Brusseleirs in this present day and age. In a two-part documentary we follow them in their preparations for our Mozartian triptych.

He’s known the work for almost two decades, and being a French conductor with an immaculate feeling for coloration and rhythmical precision, it’s as if Offenbach wrote the score with him in mind. And yet… Alain Altinoglu has waited until now to tackle Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Why? We’ll let our maestro himself explain that, all while he's performing the highlights of the opera at the piano.

‘Love makes us great, but tears greater still…’ This season, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Jacques Offenbach with a new production of his musical will and testament, Les Contes d’Hoffmann. The fantastic tale, the musical archaeology of the score, and the staging choices: they all take you on fascinating but winding roads. Follow the guide!

Call it magnetism, call it hypnotic powers, but when Audrey Bonnet enters a space, something happens. That goes for both the empty opera stage in Romeo Castellucci’s production of Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, and the small rehearsal studio where we meet the French actress to discuss her internationally lauded 'tour the force'. Have a look for yourself.

It takes the power of a heroine, the sensitivity of a virgin and the perseverance of a martyr: the title role in Giovanna d’Arco demands for a soprano out of the ordinary. Enter Salome Jicia! In between two rehearsals, we talked to our lead singer about Verdi, his music and the challenges of singing Giovanna.

Shaping Silence. Get the bigger picture of the creative process behind a brand-new opera, as we follow the artistic team of Le Silence des ombres during their rehearsals.

Part 3: We leave our Workshops and move to the KVS. In the last stretch of the production process, composer Benjamin Attahir dots the i's and crosses the t's during the stage-orchestra rehearsals, while sopranos Julia Szproch and Raquel Camarinha tell us how they experienced the last few weeks.

Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) marks the return of Romeo Castellucci to La Monnaie. A year after his radical new reading of Die Zauberflöte, the Italian director cum metteur en scène cum lighting and costume designer is turning his attention to Arthur Honegger’s extraordinary ‘oratorio dramatique’. This urgent piece of musical modernism tells the life story of France’s national heroine in eleven scenes, but then in reverse: from her death sentence to her youthful calling. We follow the approach of Honegger and his librettist Paul Claudel, and in our turn present this production in eleven retrogressive steps .

Part 2 of our video series on the rehearsals of Le Silence des ombres, starring composer Benjamin Attahir himself and with a cameo for an uncommon musical instrument.

Thomas Jolly takes us backstage during the rehearsals for La Monnaie’s brand new opera Macbeth Underworld. France’s latest Shakespeare-sensation talked to us at length about his latest project, the collaboration with Pascal Dusapin and the atmosphere at our opera house.

If you ask Pascal Dusapin, he has “seen everything on film relating to Macbeth.” So it is hardly surprising that the history of cinema greatly inspired the French composer’s new world creation Macbeth Underworld. From Judi Dench, through Orson Welles with a leading role for Roman Polanski.

Shaping Silence. Get the bigger picture of the creative process behind a brand-new opera, as we follow composer Benjamin Attahir,  stage director Olivier Lexa and a cast of young singers during their rehearsals for Le Silence des ombres.