Premiere: 24/03/21
Opéra Lyon
Lyon, France

Compositor: Paul Dukas
Musical Director: Lothar Koenigs
Stage Director: Àlex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus)
Assistant Director: Sandra Pocceschi
Set Designer: Alfons Flores
Costume Designer: Josep Abril
Lighting Designer:  Urs Schoenebaum

Coproduction: Opéra de Lyon and Teatro Real

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Like all symbolist operas, Ariadne et Barbazul, based on a libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck with music by Paul Dukas, is also situated in that intermediate territory between fairy tale and nightmare. Behind the unreality of Maeterlinck's symbolism there is a genuine fascination with the dark passions born in the chinks of everyday reality. Ariadne, perhaps influenced by the feminism of the early 20th century, acts as a resolute woman, determined to face her destiny with determination and to break the fatality that envelops Bluebeard. 

We were interested in the fascination with the abysses of danger and fear, but also in the universe of the everyday, from which fears arise. And so we constructed a parallel dramaturgy that takes place during Ariadne and Barbazul's wedding feast. In fact, it all begins with the arrival of the bride and groom at the banquet in the overture, and concludes with Ariadne's departure alone in the final act. The layer of the real, constantly present on stage, is represented by the numerous guests at the wedding. It is the presence of these guests, and specially that of the five women who are the wives of as many Bluebeards, that will give rise to the emergence of the protagonist's inner world, and to the appearance of her fears.