• 04
  • 05
    Feb. 2023

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2023 → 7 PM
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2023 → 2 PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2023 → 2 PM **NEW DATE!**

BUY YOUR TICKETS

SCHOOL GROUPS (8 TO 12 YEARS OLD)

There will be one matinee for school groups only on February 3 at 10 AM. To purchase tickets for your group, please contact Filémon Brault-Archambeault at 514.985.2258.

Preview

Hall
Théâtre Paradoxe
Venue
5959 boulevard Monk
Language: 
French (Subtitles : French and English)
Duration: 
1h13 (45 minutes for L'Enfant et les sortilèges)

Summary

Being a kid isn't the easiest thing in the world. Especially when it comes to choosing between what you want to do and what you should do. Emotions get in the way, consequences multiply and sometimes things just spill out. Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges takes us into the heart of the imaginary world that becomes the bedroom of a wicked and turbulent child. The objects around him come to life before his eyes to punish him for his behavior. Anger gives way to fear, and malice gives way to kindness.

A whimsical production directed by Sylvain Scott, with the Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal and the Orchestre de l'Agora, conducted by Nicolas Ellis.

BUY YOUR TICKETS*

*The performances of the evening February 4 and the afternoon February 5 include the following: Le tombeau de couperin, the Scheherazade cycle and the main event, L'Enfant et les sortilèges.

SCHOOL GROUPS (8 TO 12 YEARS OLD)

There will be one matinee for school groups only (primary 4, 5, 6 and secondary 1) on February 3 at 10 AM. To purchase tickets for your group, please contact Filémon Brault-Archambeault at 514.985.2258.

Multimedia
Photos

L'Enfant et les sortilièges - Ravel

Composer

Maurice Ravel  >

Maurice Ravel(7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.

Stage Director

Sylvain Scott  >

Since graduating from the professional theatre department at Collège Lionel-Groulx in 1988, Sylvain Scott has made a name for himself as an actor, singer, stage director, and composer. He is also the co-founder and artistic co-director of Théâtre Le Clou, a company that creates shows for youth and adult audiences in Quebec and in Europe. For the company, he has directed works including Faire crier les murs, Le chant du Koï, and Océantume. His productions of Je suis William and Le Scriptarium 2019 won critics’ awards for Best Young Audience Show from the Quebec Theatre Critics Association.

On stage, he was seen in La Métamorphose (Théâtre Denise-Pelletier), staged by Claude Poissant in the fall of 2021; in L’Homme de la Mancha (Théâtre du Rideau Vert) in 2019, under the direction of René-Richard Cyr; in a revival of La fête sauvage (Théâtre de Quat’Sous); as well as in 2012 – Revue et corrigée and Un violon sur le toit (Théâtre du Rideau Vert); Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and Frères de sang (Productions Libretto); La bonne âme du Sé-Tchouan, Antoine et Cléopâtre, Jeanne Dark, L’Opéra de Quat’sous, and Le Misanthrope (Théâtre du Nouveau Monde); Footloose, La mélodie du bonheur, and Hairspray (Juste pour rire); and, on the English-language stage, in Prom Queen – The Musical (Segal Centre). In the summer of 2022, he was in the cast of the musical Rock of Ages. Last May, for the musical theatre graduates of Collège Lionel-Groulx, he directed Cordélia, a musical for which he wrote the script and book. He is currently working on the stage direction of Newton, a new musical that will be staged at Théâtre La Marjolaine in Eastman in the summer of 2023.

 

Synopsis

  • Synopsis

    Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortilèges is a fantastical story where a naughty child (L’Enfant) is punished for his bad behavior when the items in his room come to life to take their revenge. The armchairs (La Bergère and Le Fauteuil) dance together to escape the child, and the take the bench (Le Banc), couch (Le Canapé), stool (Le Pouf), and the wicker chair (La Chaise de Paille) with them. The Grandfather Clock (L’Horologe Comtoise) starts toppling around the room after the child, upset at being made to strike out of time, and the Wedgwood Teapot (La Théière) boxes and dances with the Chinese teacup (La Tasse Chinoise). The fire (Le Feu) jumps out of the grate, the torn shepherds from the wallpaper (Les Pastoures and Les Pâtres) rise from the floor and dance a ballet, and the Princess (La Princesse) from the book the child destroyed appears then leaves him, forever. Even his math book becomes a little old man (Le Petit Vieillard) and the numbers (Les Chiffres) jump about the room, all in the wrong order.

    Following the cats outside, the child seeks refuge in the garden, but here the trees (Les Arbres) have come alive, and he is plagued by all the animals he has hurt or captured, and the partners of the animals he has killed. The squirrel (L’Ecureuil) he has kept in a cage warns the tree frog (La Rainette) to stay away in case he might be captured, and asks the child to set him free. The animals and trees finally gang together and attack the child, but when the squirrel is hurt and screams out everything stops. The child bandages the squirrel’s paw and the animals are shocked at his kindness. The child cries out one word ‘Maman’ and the animals echo it until Maman appears at the door, and the child goes back into the house.

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