Peter Pan

From spoken to sung, from real to imaginary ? : a mise en abyme.
The story of Peter Pan - best known through the simplifying reading of the Walt Disney cartoon - reveals itself, in James Matthew Barrie's original tale, as an astonishing parable on existence and death.
The opera reinforces the mise en abyme and the play on eternal return by staging the untimely loss of Wendy's brother, who is none other than Peter, joined by her in the afterlife: Neverland.
Three worlds alternate on the stage, using rather cinematic techniques (flashbacks, fades, abrupt transitions).
The first, the central one, features two actresses: Wendy, now a grandmother, tells her story to her granddaughter Lucie, with all the distortions and contradictions due perhaps less to her age than to her mythomania.
The second and third worlds are the lʼillustration of her words, the vivid images of her memory: the room of her childhood, where the voices are spoken but this time rhythmically timed with the orchestra, and the Neverland as for it entirely sung.
The presence of music is therefore proportional to the distance taken with reality, since the actresses speak (here and now), the soloists speak over the orchestra (the memory), and the soloists and choirs sing where everything is nothing but music (the dream... lʼAilleurs!).
Mermaids, fairies, pirates, Indians, wild beasts; family disputes, loss of children; nostalgia of looking back on one's past, etc.  From the reflection on eternal childhood (only life can offer aging) to the most spectacular battles, may this opera - like James Matthew Barrie's tale - sʼopen to all levels of reading.  

Patrick Burgan

Reviews on... -> Pizzicato - France Musique/Le concert du soir - Froggy's delight - Diapason - Classic Toulouse

Mamie Wendy : Marie-Christine Barrault
Mme Darling / La fée Tin-Tam : Gaële Le Roi
Mr Darling / Capitaine Crochet : Marc Barrard
Nanita (Domestique) / Simoun : François Piolino
Teigne (Pirate) / Chef indien : Erick Freulon
Wendy, jeune fille : Pauline Lazayres
Lys Tigré : Anaïs Gonzalez
Peter Pan : Mathieu Leroux
Les Enfants Perdus : Anton Barsoff, Sixtine Le Borgne, Juliette Montagne, Louis Pottier-Arnaud,
Lucie: Clara Le Corre (DVD) _ Romane Gorce (CD)

Orchestre et Choeur du Châtelet
Choeurs de lʼAcadémie de Paris
Direction musicale : Claire Gibault
Mise en scène et décors : Isabelle Partiot-Pieri
Lumières : Pierre Dupouey
Costumes : Christian Gasc
Solistes du choeur d'enfants Sotto Voce
Direction : Scott Alan Prouty
Artistes de cirque de la Compagnie du Bois Midi
Direction : Charles Millet
Maîtrise de Paris (Loups, léopard, crocodile, fées, sirènes, pirates, indiens)
Direction : Patrick Marco

Production TMP ‒ Théâtre du Châtelet

Enregistré par Radio-France au Théâtre Zingaro dʼAubervilliers entre le 20 mai et le 1er juin 2006