Invited to perform, a troupe of musicians will attempt to pass through the gates of the castle where they are supposed to perform. She will remain confined to the parking lot between a manager, Héloïse Jadoul, overexcited, who vapes compulsively while issuing her instructions on a megaphone, an overused, energetic waitress Laurie Degand, and an incompetent security guard, a quirky Julien Rombaux, just a stone’s throw from burnout. , to the point of turning the gun on himself. All doped with the following mantra: “Serving is a privilege, a privilege that must be earned.”.
The concert will be broadcast live on a giant screen in the Hall of Mirrors, whose name, on this scorching evening, resonates differently.
“La Libre” behind the scenes of an opera at La Monnaie
A world that wavers
Meanwhile, people run and gallop in all directions, when they don’t get out of control… A river of champagne flows from a jerrycan onto a pyramid of glasses, the petits fours pass under the noses of the artists, whose status has been questioned ever since. for a long time, and the references to significant episodes in French history follow one another, such as the visually successful allusion to the assassination of Marat in his bathtub. We then move, successfully, from one era to another, from Lully to Céline Dion, for a remake of the Titanic, from powdered faces to those smeared with botox, from jousting alexandrines to the dripping of the equestrian statue of Louis XIV because of global warming.
On the other side of the gates, which will remain forever impassable for a significant part of the population, the party degenerates and the end-of-reign atmosphere slides onto the increasingly unstable marshy ground on which the foundations of Versailles rest. In the parking lot, the true faces are revealed and greed, even malice, takes precedence over solidarity.
A seasonal show, full of discoveries, carried by magnificent lyrical voices, the baritone Romain Dayez, the soprano Julie Calbete and the mezzo-soprano Marie-Laure Coenjaerts, but which lacks precise writing and a rhythm more suited to the dark and incisive humor sought to defend an interesting point, that of a world that is wavering.
Versailles to the Martyrs, until 12/22. Duration: 1h15. Info: theatre-martyrs.be or + 32 2 223 32 08
