A combat of savage beasts, where ‘‘each smile hides a sharp tooth”, where the tongue cuts like a knife: this is the Quartett by Heiner Müller, who freely took inspiration from Choderlos de Laclos’ Liaisons dangereuses, raising it to an unparalleled level of cruelty and poisonous irony.
Premiered at La Scala in Milan in 2011 by the Catalan team of La Fura dels Baus, this stunning production employs a voyeuristic device – a cage suspended between heaven and earth – enclosing the two singers who embody the four roles in this gripping and wily combat of sex and love to the death. Huge video projections open this closed world to a global dimension.

Luca Francesconi, who himself wrote the libretto in English for this, his second opera, gives expression to all the inner recesses through serpentine vocal virtuosity. He weaves around the singers a sumptuous instrumental casing highlighted by fluid and ethereal electronics, thus creating a multiple space. Captured in velour, this human ferocity is all the more disturbing. The spectator, invited to follow this ‘‘claustrophobic peep show” (sic), trustingly penetrates into a bunker camouflaged as a boudoir...

Opera en three scenes by Luca Francesconi (born in 1956)
Created in 2011, libretto in english by Luca Francesconi from the work of Heiner Müller liberally adapted from Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre-Ambroise-François Choderlos de Laclos

Conductor Georges-Elie Octors
Director Àlex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus)
Scenography Alfons Flores
Video Franc Aleu
Costumes Lluc Castells
Lights Marco Filibeck
Computer music realisation Ircam / Serge Lemouton
Choir master Christophe Manien

With
Marquise de Merteuil Sinead Mulhern
Vicomte de Valmont Robin Adams et l’ensemble Ictus

SA 9 NOVEMBER 5:30 P.M.
CONFERENCE
Dialogue between Jean-Luc Fafchamps and Luca Francesconi.
In partnership with the regional Lyric Club.
Free entrance on reservation at +33 (0)820 48 9000 or billetterie@opera-lille.fr

MA 12 NOVEMBER 6 P.M
Masterclass
Public Masterclass at the Lille Conservatory auditorium.
Masterclass of Luca Francesconi with the composer and teacher, Vincent Paulet and the composition students.
Programming by the Pôle Supérieur, in partnership with the Lille opera.

FR 15 NOVEMBER
ENCOUNTER WITH THE
ARTISTIC TEAM OF QUARTETT
after the representation.
Free entrance.

SU 17 NOVEMBER 3:30 P.M.
"LES 400 COUPS" New !
Parents and children: to each his or her performance! You want to go to a performance on a Sunday afternoon? No problem! During the show, the Opera offers your children aged 4 to 12 a musical and fun afternoon at the Studio: an interactive concert, games with texts and sounds… and plenty of other activities.

EVENINGS OF REPRESENTATION
RESTAURATION
AND BAR AT THE ROTONDE
From 6:30 p.m. and after the representation.