visual artist Valérie Lesort has created an opera for young audiences, featuring puppets and based on Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck. This beautiful story of love and death is part of our imaginary heritage. Greek mythology recounts the quest of the poet and musician Orpheus, who bravely confronts the sinister land of Hades to use the magic of his lyre to convince the infernal gods to let his beloved Eurydice return to the world of the living. The challenge posed to him by the dark judges is well-known: he must not turn around to look at her until he has left their kingdom. Will the musician in love, who knows how to soften stones and ferocious beasts, succeed in bringing his beloved back to life?
This provocatively original adaptation is both sung and spoken. The underworld portrayed by Marine Thoreau La Salle, who is also on musical preparation and piano, is enlivened with magical episodes and amusing adventures, interspersed with the most beautiful arias from Gluck’s opera designed to introduce children to the art of opera. Inside a little castle, after an introduction by Zeus himself, and on the advice of Love in person, the singers appear in the form of hybrid puppets. Transformed into supernatural creatures 80 centimetres high, they are accompanied by zany animals on a journey full of poetry and magic, much to the delight of children and their parents.
Valérie Lesort is a director, visual artist, author and actor. In 2012, her interdisciplinarity gave birth to Monsieur Herck Tévé, a short program for Canal+, which she wrote and directed with Christian Hecq. In 2016, they signed the adaptation and staging of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea at the Comédie-Française (Molière for visual creation and critics’ prize). In 2018, Lesort and Hecq directed Le Domino noir at the Opéra de Liège and the Opéra Comique (grand prix de la critique). Valérie writes, directs and performs in Le Cabaret horrifique at the Opéra Comique. In 2019, she signs the adaptation, the scenography and the direction of Petite balade aux enfers, adapted from Orpheus and Eurydice by Gluck. The duo directed Cavalli’s Ercole amante at the Opéra Comique in 2019 (Grand Prix de la critique). In 2020, they will adapt and direct La Mouche by George Langelaan at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. Valérie also plays in the play. They won three Molières. Valérie received the SACD prize – new talent in theater 2020. She directs and signs the set design of the show Marilyn, ma grand-mère et moi at the Théâtre du Petit Saint-Martin in 2020. The same year, Christian and Valérie directed Le Bourgeois gentilhomme by Molière at the Comédie-Française. In solo this time, Valérie signs the direction of La Périchole by Offenbach at the Opéra Comique in 2022. The duo’s latest creation, Gulliver’s Journey, adapted by Valérie, was created and revived in 2022 at the Théâtre de l’Athénée, and is currently touring throughout France. She plays the role of the Empress. The show won two Molières (for the direction and the visuals).
Valérie Lesort is a director, visual artist, author and actor. In 2012, her interdisciplinarity gave birth to Monsieur Herck Tévé, a short program for Canal+, which she wrote and directed with Christian Hecq. In 2016, they signed the adaptation and staging of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea at the Comédie-Française (Molière for visual creation and critics’ prize). In 2018, Lesort and Hecq directed Le Domino noir at the Opéra de Liège and the Opéra Comique (grand prix de la critique). Valérie writes, directs and performs in Le Cabaret horrifique at the Opéra Comique. In 2019, she signs the adaptation, the scenography and the direction of Petite balade aux enfers, adapted from Orpheus and Eurydice by Gluck. The duo directed Cavalli’s Ercole amante at the Opéra Comique in 2019 (Grand Prix de la critique). In 2020, they will adapt and direct La Mouche by George Langelaan at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. Valérie also plays in the play. They won three Molières. Valérie received the SACD prize – new talent in theater 2020. She directs and signs the set design of the show Marilyn, ma grand-mère et moi at the Théâtre du Petit Saint-Martin in 2020. The same year, Christian and Valérie directed Le Bourgeois gentilhomme by Molière at the Comédie-Française. In solo this time, Valérie signs the direction of La Périchole by Offenbach at the Opéra Comique in 2022. The duo’s latest creation, Gulliver’s Journey, adapted by Valérie, was created and revived in 2022 at the Théâtre de l’Athénée, and is currently touring throughout France. She plays the role of the Empress. The show won two Molières (for the direction and the visuals).