The Valley of Astonishment
Freely inspired by The Valley of Astonishment by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne
Alexandros Markeas, composition, creation
Laurent Cuniot, conducto
Sylvain Maurice, direction and libretto
Agathe Peyrat, soprano
Paul–Alexandre Dubois, baritone
Vincent Bouchot, tenor-baritone
Philippe Cantor, bass-baritone
TM+
Nicolas Fargeix, clarinet
Vianney Desplantes, saxhorn
Florent Jodelet (or Pierre Tomassi), percussion
Julien Le Pape, piano
Myriam Lafargue, accordion
Charlotte Testu, double bass
Sylvie Leroy, lead singer
Rodolphe Martin, lighting
Olga Karpinsky, costumes
Loïs Drouglazet, video and video control
Alain Deroo, stage management
Yann Bouloiseau, sound engineer
François Pelaprat, stage management
After L'Enfant inouï a musical theater for young people, playwright and director Sylvain Maurice returns to entrust TM+ with the expression of a completely different adventure, this time inspired by Peter Brook's playwriting and animated by Alexandros Markeas' musical writing.
In The Valley of Astonishment, as in a brain that never rests, the paths intertwine, intersect and overlap; the senses are multiple, the dizziness numerous.
Sammy Koskas, the central character of this emotional and cerebral drama, is endowed – as one would say with an overly bright harlequin coat whose seams threaten to crack – with an apparently infinite memory, a phenomenal memory that makes him a fairground phenomenon, coupled with the strange faculty of unconsciously combining sounds, images, smells, which science calls synesthesia.
Gift from heaven or intimate curse? His journey resembles a descent into the depths of oneself, from the false glory of the cabaret to the inner solitude of a man who has lost the meaning of his life through overflow. Alexandros Markeas’s writing makes the frenetic connections of memory, the settings of successive universes, the painful accumulation of memories emptied of their substance, ring out the impossible quest for meaning.
Will we be able to find, in our own valleys of astonishment, the true memory, that of childhood and emotions, to be reborn to ourselves as the phoenix is reborn from its ashes?
In the press
“The Valley of Astonishment is a fine example of a meeting between theater and music (…), where the whimsical alternates with the fantastical.”
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“This minimalist operatic form succeeds in the feat of harmoniously combining the spoken and the sung, manages to interweave the sonic and visual worlds in a dynamic and limpid manner, in a touching, perfectly orchestrated synesthetic ballad (…).”
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“The music, duly written and with a precision of goldsmith, impels the scenic movement, brings rhythmic support and colors to the voices and instills this part of humor contained in the libretto. ”
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“Agathe Peyrat’s clear timbre is perfectly suited to this youthful character: mischievous in the rhythms and syllables of the spoken and sung word, she also knows how to be touching in the more solid lyrical parts, thickening her character.”
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“The lights of Rodolphe Martin nimbent the whole of shimmering colors. As for the video projections of Loïs Drouglazet, once again magnificent, they give birth to images of great poetic force.
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delegated production TM+
coproduction Théâtre de Sartrouville et des Yvelines – CDN
Maison de la musique de Nanterre, Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national
Opéra de Massy
With the support of the Région Ile-de-France
With the support of the Centre national de la musique
Support for the writing of an original musical work from the Ministry of Culture (DRAC Ile-de-France)
© Raynaud de Lage