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Is This The End? | 1. Dead little girl
How to stage the hereafter, that unknown timespace on and beyond the treshold of death?
— Ingrid von Wantoch Rekowski
To start the opera season, La Monnaie commissioned a pop requiem from the Belgian composer Jean-Luc Fafchamps. With the title Is this the end?, this new piece has three parts, the first of which, Dead Little Girl, will be performed as a live-filmed opera and broadcast on our website.
Éric Brucher’s libretto introduces us to a teenager who is caught between life and death and faces other characters hovering in a transitory state of ‘departing consciousness’. With the current Coronavirus crisis, this theme takes on a particular meaning in that many victims’ families or loved ones have been unable to say goodbye to them.
Ingrid von Wantoch Rekowski directs, aiming to give life to this ‘Mass’ of people who are half alive. Presented in a brand-new format, the show combines a film — shot in La Monnaie buildings — with live performances by seventeen musicians from La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra, eighteen vocalists from La Monnaie Chorus and three soloist singers.
Cast
A pop requiem in three parts by Jean-Luc Fafchamps
PART ONE : DEAD LITTLE GIRL
Conductor PATRICK DAVIN
Stage director INGRID VON WANTOCH REKOWSKI
Costumes REGINE BECKER
Chorus master ALBERTO MORO
Libretto ÉRIC BRUCHER
Video director JEAN CLAUDE WOUTERS
The Teenager SARAH DEFRISE
The Man AMAURY MASSION (LYLAC)
The Woman ALBANE CARRÈRE
La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra
La Monnaie Chorus
MM Academy, led by Benoît Giaux
Production DE MUNT / LA MONNAIE
Film production HELIOX FILMS
With the support of ARS MUSICA AND LUCILIA CAESAR