Luca Francesconi's opera Quartett: Cité de la Musique

About the Event

Italian composer Luca Francesconi based the libretto for his opera Quartett, premiered in 2011 at La Scala, on the eponymous play by Heiner Müller -- itself a rewriting of Laclos' Dangerous Liaisons.

The music intensifies the seductive ingenuity of the plot, translating its perversion, desires, and fears into sound. A backstage orchestra and recorded voices give body to the notion of the space beyond, a place that is at once menacing and dreamy.

    Ensemble intercontemporain
    Susanna Mälkki, conductor
   
    Allison Cook,  the marquise of Merteuil
    Robin Adams,  the viscount of Valmont
    Serge Lemouton,  Ircam recording engineer
    Julien Aléonard,  engineer for the recording of the Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala of Milan