Joan of arc at the stake

An adoration of the celestial damsel and the fanatic mob that sent a woman to the stake accused of witchcraft constitute the two extremes of medieval representation of the female sex.  These come together in this double bill of stimulating pieces where there is no scarcity of connections. Even though neither carries the title of «opera» –a symbolist cantata by Debussy and a dramatic oratorio by Honegger–, they were composed with Wagner in mind. On the one hand, we have a young Debussy capable of playing Tristan und Isolde, from memory on the piano not before rejecting the spell of the «old wise man» in Pelléas et Mélisande.  On the other is Honegger at the height of his career, fascinated –along with his librettist Paul Claudel– by the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk concept of the «total work of art », yet prepared to accomplish this with a completely new framework.   

With differing durations, dramatic registers and music, yet perfectly complimentary at the same time, La damoiselle élue shines like a stained glass window of Fra Angelico, whereas the colourful modal, the polytonality additions and the phantasmagorical sound of the ondes Martenot in Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher seem to reflect their light against the stone walls.

Dramatic oratorio in11 scenes

Music by Arthur Honegger (1892-1955)

Libretto byPaul Claudel

Preniered in the Gosser Musiksaal of Basilea, 12 May, 1938 

Premiere in the Teatro Real 

New production of the Teatro Real, in coproduction with the Oper Frankfurt

ARTISTIC TEAM 

Conductor | Juanjo Mena

Stage Director | Álex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus)

Collaborator in stage direction | Susana Gómez

Scenography | Alfons Flores

Costumes | Lluc Castells 

Video creator| Franc Aleu

Lighting | Joachim Klein

Choir Director | Andrés Máspero

Pequeños Cantores de la JORCAM Chorus Director | Ana González

CAST

Jeanne d' Arc | Marion Cotillard

Padre Dominique | Sébastien Dutrieux 

The Virgin | Sylvia Schwartz

Marguerite | Elena Copons

Catherine | Enkelejda Shkoza

Porcus | Charles Workman

Heraldo | Torben Jürgens

FOREWORD

• LA DAMOISELLE ÉLUE
• La doncella bienaventurada
• Claude Debussy

Cantata on the poem La doncella bienaventurada (1847) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 

Music by Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Premiered in the Salle Érand of París, 8 April 1893

Premiere in the Teatro Real 

New production of the Teatro Real

CAST

• Soprano | Camilla Tilling
• Mezzosoprano | Enkelejda Shkosa

Coro y Orquesta Titulares del Teatro Real

Pequeños Cantores de la JORCAM