Glyndebourne: Two operas by Ravel
- Event Type:
- IMAX cinema
- Duration:
- 120 mins
On 19 August the Science Museum is excited to be showing a live screening of two short operas by Ravel in our IMAX cinema as part of our partnership with Glyndebourne Opera House.
This production has been specially developed for the 2012 Festival and is being screened at cinemas nationwide for one night only. The two one-act operas, L’Heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges, will be sung in French with English subtitles.
The operettas reunite director Laurent Pelly and conductor Kazushi Ono, who made their Glyndebourne debuts in 2008 with Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel.
L’Heure espagnole
The play of the same name on which Ravel based his opéra espagnole is a clever conceit set in the house of a clockmaker, Torquemada. It compares the wound-up mechanism of a clock with the erotic compulsions driving flesh-and-blood humans. Concepción, Torquemada’s wife, devises a complex sequence of moves and counter-moves to conceal the presence of her various admirers. While directing these activities she becomes increasingly impressed by the physical attributes of her unwitting accomplice, Ramiro.
Stéphanie d’Oustrac, who last sang at Glyndebourne as Sesto in Giulio Cesare, will sing Concepción, while Canadian baritone Elliot Madore will make his UK and Glyndebourne debut as Ramiro.
View the trailer
L’enfant et les sortilèges
In L’enfant et les sortilèges, inanimate objects come to life when a child, fed up with doing his homework, throws a temper tantrum. All the things that have been damaged by him start to voice their objections: a broken cup and teapot, a shepherd and shepherdess from the wallpaper he ripped, a battered armchair and the princess from the torn pages of a story book.
When the sums from his homework and the animals and plants in the garden turn on the child as well, Ravel’s music reaches a fierce climax. Only the child’s kindness to an injured squirrel saves him and brings the opera to a touchingly poignant conclusion.
View the trailer
An introduction to L’heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges
A Ravel Double Bill podcast (21 minutes)
Download this podcast (right click and select 'save file as')
Image credit: Simon Annand
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