YVONNE, PRINCESS OF BURGUNDY  by  Philip Boesmans (b. 1936)
 
FIRST BELGIAN
 
In the framework and with the support
the Belgian Presidency of the European Commission
 
 

Philip Boesmans, foto Ann Selders

The Mint began its 2010-2011 season on a delightful tragicomedy written by Philip Boesmans and adapted from the eponymous play by Witold Gombrowicz by Luc Bondy and Marie-Louise Bischofberger. The new “masterpiece incisive and cruel”, the Belgian composer obtained a triumph of a rare unanimity among critics and public when it was created at the Opera National de Paris in January 2009. The newspapers have praised its beauty, inventiveness, sophistication and musical intelligence. is a play that confronts grotesque and sublime. In this fairy-tale ‘backwards’ to the dreamlike shifted between dream and nightmare, the ugliness of the heroine and her silence around him provokes fascination, confusion and cruelty. Like beauty in Pasolini’s film Theorem The ugliness is back “the profound disorder of souls.” The work speaks of desire and disgust, tolerance and   intolerance, as the two sides of same coin.   She also speaks a scapegoat and loneliness caused by the difference: a Shakespearean play to universal themes dear to the opera.
 

Yvonne, princesse de Bourgogne, foto Ruth Waltz

The score by Philippe Boesmans is all at once serious and light, baffling, acid and elegant. The music is narrative and his writing is of great virtuosity

. The choice of the French language, a first in the operas of the composer, has played an important role in placing the composition in the tradition of French lyric but by breaking the codes: Grand Opera House switches to the absurd and opera Chow said the author himself. Very conscious of voice and comprehensibility, the composer closest to his greenhouse characters and plays with the archetypes of the genre
. Only Yvonne slice by its silence, basking in a mysterious and fascinating music, a “music-for-Yvonne-who-is-silent” small major theme in very recognizable.
Philippe Boesmans created for the Mint of numerous works, including The Passion of Gilles (1983), Trakl-Lieder (1987) – will be offered at a concert with Hartmut Haenchen September 29 – Reigen (1993), early of a long collaboration with Luc Bondy, which continued with Wintermärchen (1999), Julie (2005) and today Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy.
He is considered one of opera composers most important of the decade, and his works are shown throughout Europe. It is also the author of intense concert works, including Summer Dreams string quartet, Ornamented Area for clarinet, viola, cello and piano, commissioned by the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and Band III, aulochrome (new wind instrument polyphonic) and orchestra, commissioned by the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden & Freiburg. His work has received numerous national and international awards.
 
A connoisseur of music Boesmans Patrick Davin will lead the Symphony Orchestra of the Currency, seconded by Rachid Safir (assisted by Zsolt Czetner) to the direction of the Choir of the Mint.
A regular guest at La Monnaie, the Belgian leader has already led two works by Philippe Boesmans, Reigen Wintermärchen in 1994 and 1999 along with Antonio Pappano and the world premieres of The Woman Who Walked Into Doors (2001) and House of the sleeping beauties (2009) Kris Defoort. There is also directed Orpheus in the Underworld (1997), The Turn of the Screw (2005), L’Uomo dal fiore in bocca Brewaeys Luke (2007), and recently pastiche Helene by Offenbach in the Underworld as well as numerous concerts

Yvonne, princesse de Bourgogne, foto: Ruth Waltz

Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy

.  
Former student of Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös, he has a career open to all music, from classics to contemporary repertoire. He is currently principal guest conductor at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liege. He has provided musical direction for numerous operas for the Vlaamse Opera, the Royal Opera of Wallonia, the Lyon Opera, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the Staatsoper Unter den of Linden Berlin, Opera National de Paris, Opera de Bilbao … He will lead shortly Nozze di Figaro in Monte Carlo and Mefistofele in Montpellier.
 
The Swiss director Luc Bondy German is a familiar universe Gombrovicz. Assisted by Marie-Louise Bischofberger, he has fully exploit the “anarchy of unrestricted form of the play and make a booklet of a ruthless efficiency. It proposes a staged cynical and biting farce that plays to better reveal the depth. His direction of actors is engraved in every move and draws the world uncompromisingly cruel and pointless.
Longtime director of Schaubühne Berlin, where he designed the Triumph of Love by Marivaux and Molière’s The Misanthrope, Luc Bondy takes control of the Wiener Festwochen in 2001 while continuing to work throughout Europe, Paris, Festival of Avignon, Berlin, Lausanne, Brussels and Vienna. Deeply sensitive to the text, he remains faithful to the classics, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Racine, Beckett, Chekhov and Arthur Schnitzler, but a passion for the theater just as contemporary authors such as Botho Strauss, Yasmina Reza, and Martin Crimp.
Luc Bondy is also the author of numerous staged opera, including Salzburg, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Paris, Milan and New York. At the Mint, he has mounted Così fan tutte, Salome, The Incoronazione di Poppea, Don Carlo, Reigen, Wintermärchen, The Turn of the Screw and Julie, taken to Vienna and the Festival of Aix.
 
The cast consists of singers already well known to the Mint as well as newcomers: Gay King Paul Ignatius, Mireille Delunsch in Queen Margaret – and Lisa Houben for two performances – the actress Yvonne Dörte Lyssewsky Burgundy, Hannah Esther Minutillo in Isabelle, Jason Bridges in Cyril, Jean-Luc Ballestra in Cyprian and William Anthony for the Innocent. Reijans and Marcel Werner Van Mechelen will their debut in the role of Prince Philippe and Chamberlain.
The beggar is sung by the Belgian tenor Marc Coulon, the Aunts by mezzo-soprano Polish Beata Morawska and tenor Alain-Pierre Wingelinckx, soloists from the choir of the Currency. Many small roles are assigned to Rosa Brandao, Marta Beretta, Luc Meulenaere, Jingchun Lu, Marcel Schmitz and Nathalie Van de Voorde, also soloists of the choir. 
 
In addition to performances by Yvonne Philippe Boesmans will be honored during a day devoted exclusively to the composer, September 11, 2010, during which will be the world premiere of rooms next door. By Subsequently, on September 29, the first symphony concert of the season, Hartmut Haenchen resume the Trakl-Lieder by the same composer. 
 
BACKGROUND
 
Musical Director | Patrick Davin
Staging | Luc Bondy
Decorations | Richard Peduzzi
Costumes, hairstyles and makeup | Milena Canonero
Lighting | Dominique Bruguière
Choirmaster | Rachid Safir / Zsolt Czetner
 
Yvonne | Dörte Lyssewski
King Ignatius | Paul Gay
Queen Margaret | Mireille Delunsch / Lisa Houben *
Le Prince Philip | Marcel Reijans
The Chamberlain | Werner Van Mechelen
Isabel | Hannah Esther Minutillo
Cyril | Jason Bridges
Cyprian | Jean-Luc Ballestra
Innocent | William Anthony
Valentine | Simon Korn
Soloists choir of the Currency:
Beggar | Marc Coulon
The Aunts | Beata Morawska , Alain-Pierre Wingelinckx
Rosa Brandao (Soprano Solo), Marta Beretta (1 + Lady Viola Solo), Luke Meulenaere (Tenore Solo), Lu Jingchun (Dame 3), Marcel Schmitz (Basso Solo), Nathalie Van de Voorde (Lady 2)
 
Symphony of the Currency
Choir Currency
 
Tragicomedy in four acts and music from Philip Boesmans , libretto by Luc Bondy and Marie-Louise Bischofberger from the eponymous play by Witold Gombrowicz.
Commissioned by the Opera National de Paris.
Creation, Opera National de Paris, Palais Garnier, 24.01.2009
 
 
Representations
9, 10 *, 14, 15 *, 17, 18 * & 21 September 2010 – 20:00
12 & 19 September 2010 – 15:00
De Munt | La Monnaie
 
Production
Opera National de Paris
 
Co
De Munt | La Monnaie & Wiener Festwochen
 
In the framework and with the support
the Belgian Presidency of the European Commission
With the support of Dexia
 
 
TICKETS & INFO | +32 (0) 70233939 – www.lamonnaie.be
AWARD | 10 € to 108 € – Opening of the lease since 19.06.10
INTRODUCTION | u did a half hour before the show
TRIBUTE TO PHILIP BOESMANS | On September 11, 2010 from 11:00 at Grand Foyer of the Currency (see press kit, Satellites, I.)
A COURSE WITH A VIEW | On September 19, 2010 at 11:00 in room Fiocco Mint | Tickets: 6 €
RADIO BROADCAST | Musiq 3, 26.09.10 at 20: 00
          Klara on 02.10.10 at 20: 00
CD Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy, Cypres – Recorded at the premiere in Paris.