“Béline et Martin”: an opera for the 160th anniversary of the Montagnard Singers, to be discovered on November 30 in Lourdes

The unique show will take place on Saturday November 30 at 8:30 p.m. at the Espace Robert Hossein in the Marian city. In the front row, the essential Pyrenees Singers but also the Pyrenea women’s choir and the Lourdais Accordion Club.

A fictional fresco which will also see the collaboration of talented local artists including Aurélie Samani and Bruno Spiesser, who helped develop this representation which should easily find its audience as the history of these ensembles is linked to the city itself. On Présence radio, in the program “Heure de Pointe” in partnership with the Dépêche du Midi Group, the participants unfolded the history of the paintings that spectators will be able to discover at the end of November. It will be a fiction, largely inspired by Lavedan in the 17th century, particularly highlighting the Custom of Barège, a particular system of inheritance which seems surprising today, and the revolt against the taxes imposed by Louis XIV , notably the gabelle. Laurent Chenaux, Jordan Plante, Vincent Védère for the Montagnard singers, but also Nadine Chatelet and Cathy Pedelaborde for Pyrénées, gave some information on this beautiful show on this occasion.

“Béline and Martin, the revolt of the Montagnols”, an opera, not a comedy for Laurent Chenaux as Vincent Védère explained: “He wants it to be an opera”. The choir director explained: “What interested me was to do something with the Lourdais associations because we are operating, what is it? It’s a play entirely sung, there are no spoken dialogues. That’s why Vincent is a little stressed. Of course it’s not great Italian opera but it holds together, not just an agglomeration of little things. “we put together but truly, a story and entirely sung. We also have the director who did all the Gavarnie shows”.

“Bringing local culture to life”

“The idea being to do local with our own strengths, to bring the local culture to life” explained the choir director who replaced the violins with accordions, those of the Lourdais club. This gives an artistic unity, 100% made in Lourdes with this audacious project carried out by enthusiastic partners. For the costumes, it is obviously and naturally towards Campan that the creators of the opera turned: “As we are in 1664, even if it is a heroic and crazy drama because it is not a historical reconstruction and we also find reality there.”

The designers of “Béline and Martin” also wanted to bring to light parts of the little-known Pyrenees and Haut-Pyrénées history which deserve to be brought to light. Important local characters but also customs like that of Barèges that spectators will discover if they do not know it on the evening of November 30 at the Robert Hossein space in Lourdes with this beautiful fresco which is also a reflection of the numerous talents of the Lourdais and Pyrenees associations.