Menuet • Louis Paul Boon – Daan Janssens – Fabrice Murgia – LOD muziektheater • Théâtre National

Louis Paul Boon, a Flemish writer known for working-class novels, often with a hint of eroticism, published Menuet in 1955.

It is the story of a married couple of modest means—he is a factory worker specialising in the chemical industry, she is a dissatisfied, adulterous housewife who hires a young maidservant of around twelve, full of energy and the freshness of youth.

However, an early life of hardship has taught the girl to be canny, as well as cynical and perverse at times. It is she who calls the tune with a master racked with desire for her and a jealous mistress who wants nothing more than to throw her out
of the house.

The impact of this opera, composed by Daan Janssens and directed by Fabrice Murgia, comes from seeing the same psychodrama three times from the three protagonists’ unique and subjective viewpoints, a device that may remind some of the diverse narratives in Rashomon, Kurosawa’s masterpiece.

Cast

Composition

Daan Janssens

Direction

Fabrice Murgia

after Menuet by Louis Paul Boon, translated to German by Barbara and Alfred Antkowiak; published as Menuett by Aufbau-Verlag Berlin und Weimar, 1975; © Aufbau Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin 1975, 2008. The novel is available in this edition: Alexander Verlag, Berlin 2011

Dramaturgy

Barbara Engelhardt

Directed by

Filip Rathé

Singers

Cécile Granger, Raimund Nolte, Ekaterina Levental

Ensemble
SPECTRA : Jan Sciffer (cello), Lisa De Boos (contrabass, at Luxembourg), Ben Faes (contrabass, at Brussels & Strasbourg), Gabi Sultana (piano), An Raskin (bajan), Frank Van Eycken (percussion), Charles Michiels (clarinet), Wim Van Volsem (bassoon), Simon Haspeslagh (horn), Pieter Vandermeiren (trombone)

Assistant director

Maxime Glaude

Stylist

Emilie Jonet

Sculptures

Anne Marcq, Anne Goldschmidt

Video desgin

Giacinto Caponio

Light design

Enrico Bagnoli

Set design

Vincent Lemaire

Copier

Frederik Neyrinck

Repetitor

Gabi Sultana

Dutch traduction

Daan Janssens

Technical coordination

Nic Roseeuw

Technics

Kurt Bethuyne, Victor Hidalgo, Wim Picqueur, Chris Vanneste
Development electronics Centre Henri Pousseur

Press & communication

Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles : Sophie Dupavé
Lod Muziektheater : Magalie Lagae, BE Culture

Production manager

Isabel Vermeulen

Production

LOD muziektheater

Coproduction

Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, deSingel, SPECTRA Ensemble, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Le Maillon - Théâtre de Strasbourg Scène européenne, Artara, De Munt / La Monnaie, Centre Henri Pousseur

With the support of

Enoa and Creative Europe Programme of the European Union
Accord de Coöpération Culturelle Communauté Française et Communauté Flamande

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