Olivier Py, director of the Avignon festival, presents his operetta “L’Amour Vainqueur” at the Opéra de Limoges
Until July 2022, Olivier Py directs the Avignon festival, of which he will sign the next edition. Today, he presents in Limoges his operetta i Love Winner inspired by a tale of the Brothers Grimm, Miss Maleen.
Why create a show for young audiences?
“I would prefer an ‘all audience’ show. I was a pioneer in my 30s working for “all audiences”, which is another definition of entertainment for children. “All ages” means: a show for children and intelligent people. I did a dozen shows with this in mind, always with real happiness. ”
Public theater must be interested in the youngest if it wants to continue to have an audience tomorrow
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“In all the theaters that I have directed, just like in Avignon, where it was new, I introduced a“ general audience ”component. I think it is a great democratic vector. The little ones come with parents, who will not necessarily come to the theater. The little ones will grow up. So we are preparing the public of tomorrow. Public theater must be interested in the youngest if it wants to continue to have an audience tomorrow. “
Why L’Amour Vainqueur based on a Grimm tale?
“All my shows for all audiences are adaptations of these tales. I have a passion for these authors and these texts. They weren’t very well known 30 years ago, only little Germans but much less French kids. Marthe Robert has just released her translation. The choice of Grimm’s tales allows you to get out of Perrault or Andersen. Their narrative structure is also extremely solid, universal. Finally, the texts are so refined that they are practically synopses. Taking them back from the Brothers Grimm does not prevent an author from dreaming in order to make something personal of them. “
Children love musical and sung forms
“Yes, it’s an operetta. It took 55 years to dare to do this (laughs). I have noticed over time that children really like musical and sung forms. So, for the younger ones, I went more and more towards these forms until this operetta. A little immodestly, I thought that I would also write the music somehow. “
What fun and difficulties to do?
” It’s difficult (laughs). It is loaned. It’s patient. However, the year I wrote it, I experienced it as a wonderful inner adventure. But so demanding! I don’t know if I will do it again. In this show, I didn’t want too scholarly music. I told myself that if I composed it, it would certainly be less learned than with a more learned composer. “
The piano allows you to be in your bubble, to get out of the world
Did you compose on the piano?
“Yes, at the piano. I have a piano. I spend a lot of time there. He’s an old companion. “
What does it bring you?
“The pianists, at their piano, are in a sort of bubble. It’s a way of getting out of the world. It is the instrument that I played as a child, without being very proficient, even though my mother absolutely wanted me to be a pianist. In any case, I kept this love affair with this instrument. I need it, almost physically. I like digitality. And then, it’s a lazy man’s instrument. Just press the button to get the note (laughs). Besides, it is not an instrument. It’s an orchestra. If I had played the flute, I would have been less aware of harmony and it is harmony that fascinates me. “
Speaking of your operetta, you say: “it is a question of transmitting to the child the faith in his desire which alone can invent the world of tomorrow”. Is this the guideline of your life? Is this show also a dialogue with the child who dwells in you?
“This child was still very close when I started writing for children. Perhaps this is less the case today. It must be said that the state of the world has changed. In Love Winner, the heroine crosses a ruined world, as in all my texts for children. Maybe I like the Brothers Grimm. They are poets of resilience. In all of their tales, the central character goes through a traumatic ordeal and survives it. “
Today we say to children: as fathers we have failed. We wish in you
“Recently, I spoke with the Japanese director Satoschi Myagi. After the tsunami, he insisted on two of my adaptations of Grimm’s tales, to remind us that we can go through a trauma. In today’s world, the trauma has obviously grown. We cannot speak to children like 30 years ago. We do it with concern, leaving them with such a heavy question mark. The days of moral tales for children are revolutionary. Today they are told: we have failed. As your fathers, we have failed. We have hope in you. In any case, that’s what I meant with this show. “
Preserving the virtual epidemic, art and theater are the only possible revolution
You also say: “it is a question of telling the child that the theater is the art of re-enchanting the world destroyed by adulthood”. I imagine that this re-enchantment is the meaning you give to your work, your art …
“Oh yes … Especially since I wrote this show before the covid experience. She locked us up, separated us, put us in front of the screens. The theater has gained in oratic splendor. It should never be forgotten that often the children who see this show are going to the theater for the first time. It is the whole theater that they discover. They must see him with his magic. They look at him differently from the little boy I was because their relationship to the world is different. He is contaminated by the epidemic of the virtual. ”
This re-enchantment is possible for the duration of a show. But theater and art in general ultimately have very little power to change the course of the world …
“So there, I’ll never be quite sure. To tell the truth, I even think that there is more than that. Change the way the world works? Who can? We are under the blow of a technological fatality. Particularly today, I have no doubt that the theater preserves something, namely the real, the mere fact of going out, of being together, of being together in a place, so as not to be in front of a screen and alone. So here the theater is revolutionary. It is even the only possible revolution. “
Women in leadership positions in culture? The world has changed and fortunately
Here the hero is a heroine. A comment on the fact that many women are currently appointed to the management of cultural structures?
“The world has changed. Today there are almost as many women as men in the national drama centers. The national choreographic centers are still late. The theater community was too. But the world has changed. It is certain and fortunately. “
The public has trouble returning to the theaters. Is the management of the crisis involved, having kept people away from the performing arts for too long? Whereas he could have come out stronger if we had let people at least go to the show. What to do about this situation?
“You have to say it with honesty. There has been a considerable financial effort from the public authorities, which has not been the case in other countries. We should have left the performance halls open because they are not contaminating. This was also the opinion of the Minister of Culture. She fought against the Minister of Health. She lost. Coming back to theaters isn’t as big as we’d hoped. It will be done but a little more slowly. It has been said for years that creating an audience is loaned. On the other hand, losing an audience is quick. To create subscribers, it takes a lot of patience. Losing them is very quick. I too am disappointed. But it is so. People need to relearn how to come out of their homes because that’s what’s blocking it. “
People need to relearn how to leave their homes
“When we talk about culture in a very broad sense, we include realities that did not have the same fate during the crisis. The culture of screens, platforms and books have received it like never before. The spectacle on the other hand has. In addition, within the performing arts, the theater is a special category for which nothing has ever been easy. “
The drop in attendance is not uniform, some shows are sold out, others are very abundant. It’s curious…
” Not really. In a difficult time, it is no surprise that entertainment is dressing up and it is more complicated for art theater. “
After having directed the Odeon Théâtre de l’Europe in Paris, then the Avignon Festival, what is the future for you, after the end of your mandate in the summer of 2022? What are your desires? Your projects ?
“I’m going to appreciate having a big blank page in front of me. Then I do not know. And I want to continue not knowing. Obviously, the clock hasn’t stopped for me. I need to refocus on my deepest desire. But I’m not sure I can answer it yet. In any case, whatever life I have in the years to come, if there is theater and youth, that is what I desire the most. “
Limoges Opera House. Friday 26 November 8 p.m., Saturday 27 November 3 p.m., large hall, duration 1h10 without intermission, single price 25 €, reservations: 05.55.45.95.95 or [email protected].
Proposals reported by Muriel Mingau