A child is punished by his mother with no dinner — a consequence of not doing his homework — so he throws a tantrum and destroys everything within reach, even the wallpaper. But when his victims return to recount their suffering, he’s overwhelmed by fear and guilt.
It’s not Stephen King: This is Maurice Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortilèges (The Child and the Spells), a one-act lyric fantasy set to a libretto by French author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. On Feb. 7, the production makes its Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra debut. Conducted by CSO Music Director Louis Langrée, Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5 is paired with the show.
“L’enfant is an invitation to a voyage,” says Langrée, citing the French poet Baudelaire. “It’s an opera about childhood, but I wouldn’t say that it’s for children.”
Perhaps not, but the CSO is mounting a stunning show. Since its 2016 debut at Opéra National de Lyon, this interpretation of the classic opera has captivated audiences through utilizing vivid animation, lighting and staging. It’s a brilliant solution for a 45-minute work with formidable production challenges that include singing furniture.
The video animation designed by Grégoire Pont is projected on transparent screens in front of the orchestra. Flames shoot up and dance, numbers fly in dizzying swirls, a teapot and cup shatter and fall to the floor.
“We always knew that we wanted animation to be a part of the child’s imaginative and emotional response to what happens, rather than using video technology to provide scenery we couldn’t afford,” says director James Bonas, who staged the original production and directs the CSO’s performances.
When asked how everything stays in sync, Bonas says, “It’s complicated.”
The production team was keenly aware that the tempo would vary with different conductors and even within performances themselves; they had to balance precision and spontaneity.
“What looks like continuous animation might be 10 separate sections, each triggered by the operator in response to a conductor reaching a certain note or a singer doing a certain action,” Bonas says. “Timing becomes both precise and flexible. And it takes a lot of skill on the part of the operator.”
Timing is everything. The stage manager will call almost 280 lighting and video cues over 45 minutes. The singers are also in front of the orchestra, but will follow Langrée’s beat, thanks to a video camera on the podium projecting onto screens in the balcony.
“I can’t say I’m looking forward to seeing it,” he says with a laugh. But he has seen the preview video and is more than impressed. “It’s absolutely magnificent — so evocative!”
The youthful cast features American mezzo Isabel Leonard, who has worked with Langrée at the Metropolitan Opera. In addition, there are 19 supporting roles, a chorus and dancers. Langrée collaborated with University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music’s opera and choral departments to select performers, a partnership that promises to strengthen in future seasons. (Langrée conducts CCM’s Philharmonia orchestra next weekend.)
“There’s an extraordinary vibration between Cincinnati’s cultural institutions and it’s important to demonstrate that collaboration,” Langrée says. “I’m delighted because we have today’s stars — Isabel Leonard and the great pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet — and stars of the future.”
Langrée acknowledges that L’enfant is a difficult work, even for experienced performers. The style, he says, is more “declamation than singing” and performers need to strike a perfect balance in articulating each phrase.
“Each musician is very exposed and can show the richness and the strength of this opera,” Langrée says. “The CSO has this rare quality of being at ease with orchestral concerts and accompanying ballet and opera. What better way to show off their individual and collective talents?”
Citing Ravel’s music as having an indefinable quality that evokes both atmosphere and emotion, Langrée adds that Music Hall’s acoustic renovations allow audiences to hear the full palette of Ravel’s tonal colors.
There’s also deeper resonance in this work, which started out as a ballet that was commissioned while Ravel was fighting in World War I. Colette agreed to revise her libretto, expanding it into an operetta, but poor health prevented the work’s completion until 1925.
Colette, best known to American readers as the author of Gigi, originally titled the ballet Diversions for my Daughter.
“She had a great understanding of childhood,” Langrée says. “Especially boredom.”
In the early 1920s, Ravel fell in love with American Jazz and musical theater, both of which inspired him to finish L’enfant, which he billed as a lyric fantasy.
“He was fascinated by Jazz,” Langrée says. “Ravel wrote that he didn’t understand why American musicians didn’t see Jazz as the future of American music.”
Ravel’s score is indeed a journey, complete with long phrases that convey boredom, wild, raucous destruction and a final soothing lullaby. For Langrée, L’enfant is an opportunity to explore the facets of Ravel’s genius, which transport the audience to the world of childhood.
The objects and animals deliver damage reports more sorrowful than aggressive, although that’s not the case with the arithmetic teacher. The child escapes to his garden and gradually realizes a sense of responsibility. At the opera’s conclusion, the animal chorus sings that “he’s a good child; he is wise.”
It’s clearly a fable but the moral doesn’t overwhelm. There are moments that resonate with everyone: Who wants to be stuck doing homework all day or listen to a pedantic teacher? And there are moments that are delightfully whimsical, like the dancing fire and the amorous cats.
Langrée is revisiting a work he conducted 20 years ago for Opéra Lyon, the same company behind the reinterpreted production Cincinnati audiences will see Feb. 7 and 8. The enchanting 1999 Lyon production with Langrée conducting is up on YouTube. “I haven’t seen it yet,” he admits.
Bonas is confident that this imaginative concept has an appeal beyond Classical music fans.
“Audiences have really engaged with this approach,” he says. “It allows a direct and joyful experience of Ravel and Colette’s marvelous creation.”
L’enfant et les Sortilèges unfolds at Music Hall (1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine) 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7 and Saturday, Feb. 8. Tickets/more info: cincinnatisymphony.org.
