Opéra national de Paris (2024)

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The two faces of Odette and Odile

On the occasion of the revival of Swan Lake at the Opéra Bastille, Bleuenn Battistoni rehearses Rudolf Nureyev's choreography alongside her partners Hugo Marchand and Florent Melac.

The Étoile dancer talks about the dual character of Odette and Odile, which allows her to work on several facets: animal gestures, a manipulative dimension, and a purer femininity.

She stresses the importance of oral transmission in studio work, notably with coach Claude de Vulpian.

Finally, she confides how much the music of Swan Lake has become inscribed in her body over the years, as a result of the different roles she has interpreted in this ballet.

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5:30 min

Voices from the Troupe: Florent Mbia

The Paris Opera is launching a new series, Voices from the Troupe, to learn more about the talents who have joined the institution's new opera group.

To coincide with La Vestale, Florent Mbia, who plays the Chief of the Aruspices and a consul, discusses his career, from discovering his voice in Cameroon to joining the Troupe, via his years in the Paris Opera Chorus.

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6:24 min

A cathartic experience - Léonore Baulac rehearses Bluebeard

On the occasion of the repertory debut of Barbe-Bleue, Léonore Baulac talks about the role of Judith she plays in this ballet by Pina Bausch, created in 1977.

The Étoile dancer plays a woman whose curiosity leads her to confront a man who is both terrible and manipulative. She underlines the harshness and cruelty of a story that echoes our own times.

She explains the central role of the tape recorder and Béla Bartók's music, and describes her work in the studio with her partner Takeru Coste.

Finally, she looks back at Pina Bausch's writing technique, based on repetition to the point of exhaustion, which allows her to transcend herself.

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Spontini's La Vestale, a great Napoleonic opera

First performed in 1807 at the Paris Opera, Gaspare Spontini's La Vestale bridges worlds: the musical worlds of the Baroque, of Gluck and Mozart, with a modernity that heralds Romanticism, and the historical worlds of Roman antiquity and the Napoleonic Empire.

A work of fusion, a political work, ‘the first French grand opera’ according to Bertrand de Billy, who conducts it, in a new production directed by Lydia Steier.

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Draw-me La Vestale

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Draw-me Così fan tutte

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Dance! Sing! Tales of Opera and Ballet

Podcast La Vestale with France Musique

© Anne Van Aerschot

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Dancing with words

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5:47 min

La Vestale: a prophetic opera - Interview with Lydia Steier

After Salome, Lydia Steier returns to the Paris Opera with her new production of Gaspare Spontini's La Vestale.

She explains the synopsis, the work's place in the history of opera, her dramaturgical vision and the contribution of Elza van den Heever in the title role.