H È C T O R PA R R A
Les Bienveillantes Opera after Jonathan Littell novel Opera for soloists, vocal quartet, choir & big orchestra
Commissioned by Opera Vlaanderen Antwerph/Ghent, Staatstheater Nürnberg and Teatro Real de Madrid Durée : 3h00
This opera started with a team: the Austrian writer Händl Klaus, the Catalan stage director Calixto Bieito, the conductor Peter Rundel, and myself. Together, we created WILDE in 2015… and several months later, Calixto called me and said “Hèctor, I’d like to work with you on a new project... an opera of Les Bienveillantes, the novel by Jonathan Littell!” Les Bienveillantes is a novel around 1000 pages in length, which masterly crystallises the idea of extermination and war, its consequences and its origins. It is a paradigmatic example of how a © Ircam society is able to turn to genocide. The novel is structured into seven sections. Each section bears the name of a baroque suite, and we respected this in the opera: seven sections in total, four before the interval, and three after. The opera tells the story of the nazification of Max Aue. Despite the fact that he is half-French and halfGerman, he sees himself as entirely German, struggling to accept his part-French identity. He is also halfman, half-woman, but hates all women. He develops a homosexual relationship, all the while harbouring sentiments of love for his sister, the only person in his life that he cares about... The character is full of contradictions, which I expressed through the use of colourful vocal variation and contrasts... I developed a rich and complex vocal style of music, without dehumanising Max as a character. On the contrary, I sought to delve deeper into the character by using regular inflexions, dynamic contrasts, and different colours for each register... In a way, it is a very human voice.
“This is my vision, my sentiment, when faced with the crimes that took place in the camps. It is a modern vision, that is to say we are detached from the period in question since we assume that we cannot fully comprehend what happened during this act of barbarism.” We chose Les Bienveillantes for its premonitory nature, looking back to the recent past whilst also highlighting the present and even looking to the future. ÉDITIONS DURAND SALABERT ESCHIG (A unit of Universal Music Publishing Classical) Isabella Vasilotta Artistic Director & Promotion t. +33 1 87 16 37 14 / m. +33 6 06 86 69 44 isabella.vasilotta@umusic.com