Clarac, Deloeuil > le lab will start the year on the Côte d'Azur: first at the Opéra de Marseille to revive the production of Rusalka that has already been a great success in Avignon, Nice and Bordeaux, then at the Opéra de Nice Côte d'Azur for a new production of a magnificent opera that is too rarely performed: Juliette ou la Clé des songes by Boruslav Martinú.

Among the many reviews of Rusalka that have appeared in the press, we are republishing these two excerpts, which summarise them all:

“Never losing sight of and therefore accepting, even assuming, the letter of the libretto – rather than by passing or diverting it – requires a certain effort, which the French directing duo Jean-Philippe Clarac and Olivier Deloeuil never shy away from. This, while maintaining the necessary distance to make it resonate with a contemporary narrative and contemporary themes. Without, however, falling into the trap of an endlessly reproducible reading grid, but, on the contrary, always finding an original angle. Here then, for this new Rusalka, the water nymph is immersed in the merciless world of synchronized swimming. Everything about the action, its driving forces and motivations, right through to the denouement, is absolutely right.” (Opéra Magazine)

“True to themselves, the duo did not confine themselves to updating the work: they have superimposed onto realism the dreamlike world of Dvorak's "lyrical tale". While the videos, perfectly integrated into the set design, show modern-day swimmers, with an aquatic ballet reminiscent of Esther Williams movies in Act II, they also feature images of the seabed and lakeside landscapes, establishing the symbolic omnipresence of primordial water throughout. The universality of the message is thus preserved, even reinforced, in this perpetual oscillation between dream and realiity, tale and news story, pond in the Médoc and swimming pool in Avignon (...). Here as elsewhere, in their Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy in Brussels for instance, the two directors do not sacrifice the theatre to the singularity of the concept or the skill of the production. They create beings of flesh and blood, restoring their complexity, from a Rusalka trapped in her mermaid suit, both rebellious and submissive, to a Foreign Princess of vampiric seduction.” (Diapason)

All dates of performances

17.12.24