music by Jacques Offenbach
Croquefer ou le dernier des paladins
one-act operetta bouffe - 12 February 1857
libretto Adolphe Jaime and Étienne Tréfeu
L’Ile de Tulipatan
one-act operetta bouffe - 30 September 1868
libretto Henry Chivot and Alfred Duru
Compagnie Les Brigands
orchestration for nine musicians Thibault Perrine
musical director Christophe Grapperon
staging Jean-Philippe Salério
sets and lighting Thibaut Fack
costumes Elisabeth de Sauverzac
choreographer Jean-Marc Hoolbecq
assistant director Victoria Duhamel
piano/chef de chant Nicolas Ducloux
characters and performers
Croquefer / Hermosa Flannan Obé
Boutefeu / Alexis Emmanuelle Goizé
Ramasse-ta-tête / Romboïdal François Rougier
Fleur-de-Soufre / Théodorine Edwige Bourdy
Mousse-à-mort / Cacatois XXII Loïc Boissier
production Athénée – Théâtre Louis-Jouvet / Cie Les Brigands
co-production La Coursive, Scène nationale La Rochelle & Le Centre des Bords de Marne, Le Perreux
Les Brigands receive aid from Ministère de la Culture – DRAC Ile-de-France and from SPEDIDAM.
in original language with Italian subtitles
thanks to Angelo Fabbrini Pianoforti - Pescara for the invaluable support
Bewitched by the charm of The Tales of Hoffmann and La vie
parisienne, it is often forgotten that at the beginning Offenbach was a
virtuoso cellist, prolix composer of so-called serious music as well as
author of flourishing one-act pieces, one more bizarre than the other.
Having
directed the works of the most diversified librettists, Offenbach
explored all the genres: peasant farces and fantastic deliriums, opposed
love stories and ridiculous plots, cloak-and-dagger stories of exotic
taste ... A whole universe, yes, but a parallel universe, "conceived
solely for the pleasure and the thrill of fiction," said Georges Perec. A
big joke in which everyone, in the end, does nothing but pretend to be
what he represents, and this is also the case with Offenbach himself .
The "Mozart of Champs Élysées", the "Napoleon of the operetta", the bard
of the «Parisian», arrived in France in 1833, from Cologne, the city of
carnival and scented waters, where his father sang in a synagogue."The
idea of the mask, which he carried with him in his luggage, literally
invades his work," observes Robert Pourvoyeur. "In this France which
makes its entrance into the industrial age, the main thing was to
inspire confidence and to appear, even before being. Under Napoleon III,
from the court to the banks, from the society women to the parvenu, few
of those who called themselves lovers of art, are really what they
claim to be."A thought that René Leibowitz deepens with respect to music
scores: "It’s a masquerade music and at the same time a disguised
music: a disguise of the characters (...), but also a disguise of the
melancholy and the nostalgia for a lost innocence dressed with the
craziest and most exuberant gaiety."
There are many stories
of Croquefer. On the one hand the great medieval legend, here pleasantly
mistreated for the sake of parody and the joy of anachronisms. On the
other hand, the story of the play itself. In fact, the censorship,
legacy of royal privileges, prohibits a piece sung by more than four
characters to be represented outside the opera theaters – provision
which the authors not only ignore but choose to ignore, relying on the
goodwill that the ministry had granted so far. However they are guilty
of naivety: the Censorship in fact, raises an objection two days before
the performance, and panic spreads. The librettists Jaime and Tréfeu
therefore have the terrific idea to transform the character of
Mousse-à-Mort: they will say that the Saracens cut his tongue and his
text will be screeched or posted on banners, a method tested by the 18th
century Fair to put an end to the privileges of the Comédie-Française.
Perfect. In this way, the ministry has fun and at the same time it’s
clear that under the frills, every story connects with the other ...
Ten
years later, Offenbach presents L’Île de Tulipatan. A decade which made
him an unrivaled theater director and the author of stunning successes,
which first triumph in Paris and then are exported to Vienna, London or
New York. Without ever interrupting his production, he does not mind
short fantasies that have established his glory, as evidenced by this
comedy of quid pro quo, which takes place "at 25,000 kilometers from
Nanterre, 473 years before the invention of the chamber pot". An
isolation that allows exploration, at pleasure, of the confusion of
genres, where he enunciates the exciting grammar of customs and
traditions and where, contrary to all expectation, the feminine often
overwhelms even the male. In a world of disguises, this becomes habit:
if, in the German tradition, the girls’ roles are often embodied by the
tenors, with Offenbach too we see men taking female roles when they have
to interpret a particularly grumpy character (as in Mesdames de la
Halle), or women who dress up to demonstrate the value of men (see
Paimpol et Périnette). After a successful debut, L’Ile de Tulipatan
talks about the revenge of nature upon all imperfections and at the end,
the triumph of love.
Lola Gruber
CHRISTOPHE GRAPPERON
He was assistant to Marc Minkowski (Massenet´s Manon in Monte-Carlo).
Baritone, he has worked in numerous vocal ensembles (Diabolus, Sequence 9.3 ...).
He has directed Les Aventures du Roi Pausole by Honegger at the Opéra de Toulon.
Upon Laurence Equilbey’s request, he is preparing the Accentus choir.
Since 2007, he has been directing all the Les Brigands company productions.
THIBAULT PERRINE
He has studied with Jean-Claude Raynaud, Thierry Escaich and Jean-François Zygel.
He studied Conducting with Nicolas Brochot and Catherine Simonpietri.
He
has directed several performances of Dr Ox et Ta Bouche with Les
Brigands, in Paris. He has written most of the musical arrangements of
Les Brigands since 2003, as well as for the Théâtre du Châtelet (Le
Chanteur de Mexico) and the Opéra de Lyon.
JEAN-PHILIPPE SALÉRIO
In 1985 he carried out his civil service at the Théâtre Le Rio in Grenoble directed by Yvon Chaix.
He has recited with directors Georges Lavaudant, Laurent Pelly, Michel Raskine, Christophe Perton.
From 1995 to 2010 he co-directed, with Claire Truche, the company Nième, in Lyon,
He does the staging for the authors Rémi De Vos, Alan Bennett, Sophie Lannefranque, Sergi Belbel ...
In 2008 he directed La Cour du roi Pétaud by Léo Delibes for the company Les Brigands.
THIBAUT FACK
He attended the École Boulle in Paris and completed his studies at the School of the National Theater of Strasbourg.
He
signs the sets and costumes for Clément Victor, Pierre Ascaride, Thomas
Matalou. He works closely with Yann-Joël Collin (Violences-
Reconstitution) and Olivier Py.
In 2007, he staged Woyzeck/Wozzeck by Berg and Büchner at the Odéon (Festival Berthier).
He is currently working with Nicolas Kerszenbaum, Cécile Backès and Julia Vidit.
ÉLISABETH DE SAUVERZAC
She has worked in the theater alongside Philippe Adrien, Dominique Lurcel, Christophe Thiry ...
She
signs the costumes of twelve productions for the company Les Brigands
(2001-2012). She collaborates with Brontis Jodorowsky in Besançon
(Pelléas in 2009 and Rigoletto in 2011).
She participates at the Festival d´Aix-en-Provence with Dmitri Tcherniakov and later with Vincent Boussard (2012).
She collaborates with the artistic activities of the Music Festival Nigella (Puccini, Janacek, Schubert, Bizet).
JEAN-MARC HOOLBECQ
He took his first steps on stage next to the choreographer Odile Azagury.
He is the author and collaborator of purely choreographic creations.
He has worked for the theater with Rochefort, Bozonnet, Podalydès, Bélier-Garcia ...
He is a pedagogue at the Studio d´Asnières and the Conservatoire National Supérieur d´Art Dramatique de Paris.
Since 2007 he has taken part in six productions of the Brigands.
FLANNAN OBÉ Croquefer & Hermosa
He studied Acting, Singing and Dance (classical, modern jazz and tip tap).
Leading figure of the trio Lucienne et les Garçons, in 2006 he was awarded with the Spedidam prize.
He
regularly appears at the cinema (Klapisch) and on television (TV films
and series). He has taken part in three productions of the company Les
Brigands (Lattès, Delibes, Terrasse).
He collaborates with
Anne Baquet at the writing of Elle était une fois. He collaborates for
the text and interprets L´Envers du décor.
EMMANUELLE GOIZÉ Boutefeu & Alexis
Since 2001 she has participated in all the Les Brigands company productions.
She acted in the film musical comedy Jeanne et le garçon formidable.
Marc Minkowski invites her to sing alongside Jessye Norman and Papagena in Madrid.
She plays the role of Lulu de Belleville in the work by Germaine Tillon Le Verfügbar aux Enfers.
In 2011 she works in René l’Énervé by Jean-Michel Ribes and in La Zingara with Les Paladins.
FRANÇOIS ROUGIER Ramasse-ta-tête & Romboïdal
He studied Singing with Cécile Fournier and then with Sophie Marin-Degor.
In 2006 he sings in the role of Platée with the l’Atelier des Musiciens du Louvre, in Grenoble.
In 2011 he interprets Marin (Didon & Enée) and Borsa in Rigoletto at the musical theater of Besançon.
He
regularly works with the Chapelle rhénane & the Ensemble baroque of
Toulouse. In January 2013 he joins the first Académie de
l’Opéra-Comique.
EDWIGE BOURDY Fleur-de-Soufre & Théodorine
She studies at the École d´Art lyrique de l´Opéra de Paris and at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.
She
plays the roles of Rameau, Lully and Monteverdi directed by J. E.
Gardiner and René Jacobs. She regularly collaborates with the Péniche
Opéra and Mireille Larroche.
In pop music she has stood out for: Oh mon bel inconnu, V’lan dans l’oeil, les Caf’Conc’ Hervé…
She dedicates one of her concerts to Marie Dubas, the brilliant fantasy artist who lived between the two wars.
LOÏC BOISSIER Mousse-à-Mort & Cacatois XXII
He works with Marc Minkowski and in 1996 he joins the Choir of Musicians of the Louvre.
He is a member of the European Academy of the Festival of Aix-en-Provence (2001).
He founds the company Les Brigands and takes part in productions directed by Stéphan Druet.
He opens his company to that of 26000 couverts, to Johanny Bert and then to Pierre Guillois.
He directs the musical theater of Besançon (2008-2012) where, however, he does not appear on stage.