Claude Ballif, music | Renald Tremblay, libretto | Joseph Saint-Gelais, stage direction and stage design | Claude Cournoyer, lighting | Angelo Barsetti, make-up | Ginette Noiseux, costumes | Réjean Goderre, hairstyling
Pauline Vaillancourt, soprano | Renée Lapointe, mezzo-soprano | David Doane, baryton-Martin | Michel Ducharme, bass
Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), Lorraine Vaillancourt, conductor
World premiere
Nov. 28, 29, 1992, Salle Pierre-Mercure, Montreal
Broadcast on CBC – May 1st, 1993 – Opéra du samedi
Meet Mathilde, Horace, Florence and Grégoire, four characters who flee from their own images by mirroring themselves in those of others. Four characters who chase away the anguish of living and the fear of the unknown by seeking refuge in words. They are intoxicated by words, objects, places, actors and dramas other than their own, which are play out in spite of themselves, in them, around them, at this very moment. Right up to each characters last gasp of breath and last gulp of air, they take turns trying to deny the obvious and ignore the inescapable. But with each of their silences, drop by drop, death will seep in…
