​​ The world

Renaud Machart

An intergalactic Arcadia

“(..) the thread followed by the merry band summoned by the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris to stage it preferred a more radical spatio-temporal stall by moving the action with shots of spaceships in an intergalactic world populated with manga-style cartoon creatures. […] So that all this seems less out of place than these innumerable pretentious and absurd opera productions which transpose the action into fallout shelters. Multiple synthesized sound pellets interrupt the accompaniment of the recitatives or are superimposed on them; when these are integrated harmonically, the effect hits the mark. "

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Le Figaro​

Christian Merlin

“To bring it back to life, a quirky visual creation was undoubtedly necessary. […] No delirium, however: the story is told in a legible way and the music is not betrayed, even in those skilful interventions of synthesizers which punctuate the recitals of sound effects straight out of the game consoles. C it is quite entertaining. "

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Release

Eric Loret

“Joy of young and old. […] The staging multiplies the take-offs, atomic scooters, successful acceleration (an electric car then a film that brakes in the opposite direction and voila). […] As far as we could tell the night we were there, 100% of the people who attended the show liked it - and cheered it on. "

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The cross

Emmanuelle Giuliani / Marie Soyeux

"The director Olivier Fredj and his inventive accomplices in lights and in video and sound creation therefore spare neither their efforts nor their effects to liven up the stage. […] At the exit, a woman of about sixty years commented, still a little taken aback: “Finally… it's very cheerful! In front of an amused teenager.

CultureBox

Bertrand Renard

“We had not seen this“ King Pasteur ”(“ Il re pastore ”) in Paris for ages. It comes back to us, let's say it straight away, in a very nice production. A modern and intelligent production which - it is not so often - will also be very popular with children. "

Opera Forum

Christian Peter

“The direction of an extremely inventive actor, leaves no downtime, the eye is constantly solicited by a new element, an appearance or a gag which trigger the hilarity of the room. In addition to the soloists, a group of dancers dressed as cosmonauts perform on stage and perform various and varied acrobatics, especially during the airs. The action is perfectly readable and the - rather thin - argument of the work is enriched by the surge of images and the many stage games we are witnessing. "

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Artistic Rezo ​

Helene Kuttner

“Because Mozart's opera, devoid of its pastoral and naive character, takes on a much more fascinating turn here in that it plunges into our modern mythologies. The director Olivier Fredj has chosen to direct his comic book characters in a funny way and totally in line with the typology of modern heroes. Moreover, with each new appearance of a character, a cartel appears on the huge starry screen with its signage. Friends or enemies, courageous or deceitful, the gentle creatures imagined by Metastase in the 18th century take on color and character and the recitatives, with a real poetic flavor, are sometimes disturbed with irony by electronic sound effects ”.

Concert Classic .com

Pierre-René Serna

“In the end, something fresh, as claimed by this heroic pastoral, youthful in spirit and conception but assured, like this show for all audiences. "

Bach track

Anne-Laure Faubert

"It is a production by Olivier Fredj that will be remembered for a long time: Il re pastore, an opera composed by Mozart then aged 19, refers from the first moments of this production to cartoons of the 1980s, to Star Wars and Japanese manga. References that will speak to those in their thirties and to the child that lies dormant in all of us. A thin plot, characters quite similar - there is no real villain - and an expected outcome. The staging makes it possible to erase these characteristics by focusing the spectator's attention on the opera food side. We laugh a lot in this version of Il re pastore. […] With its special effects, this production of Il re pastore recalls period machinery, to the delight of spectators. "

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Operanimal​

Anh tuan

“We must also salute the acrobats and puppeteers who all deserve to be mentioned: Valentin Johner, Antoine Lafon, Thomas Favre, Nicolas Comiti, Colin Cluzaud, David Cami de Baix, Bruce Chatirichvili, Edouard Gameiro. […] This production, full of humor, visually astonishing and sufficiently full of details to be seen several times if necessary because it is not sure that we will give Il Re Pastore on stage again so soon, treated like a real conductor. work of Mozart. "

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TLC - All Culture

Yael

"  the result offers moments of great beauty (in the first act, literal soarings of the soloists in the stars, and a rise in power with a formidably crazy universe and solid choreography in act two) and an energy that pays homage well to the fruitful youth of Mozart. "

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Il Tenore Momento

“The staging by Nicolas Buffe and Olivier Fredj plunges us into a fascinating universe mixing video games, Japanese superheroes and science fiction. She offers us an always precise and exciting rereading of this youthful opera, in full agreement with the naive character of this serenata written by nineteen-year-old Mozart. Thus, the adventures of the libretto a nothing stilted by the great Metastase pass like a letter in the mail, without the transposition ever offending the music, quite the contrary. Wearing a platinum blonde afro wig, the character of Alexander the Great is gently ridiculed, while the couple of shepherds Aminta and Elisa keep their naivety and their emotion, even in this universe of eighties colors. Very virtuoso and magnificently produced, this staging resolutely offbeat, but always respectful of the music, hits the mark in a work that is undoubtedly not easy to stage. "

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Konbini

“Associating Mozart with the world of video games and manga was a rather daring bet. But the director Olivier Fredj and the plastic artist Nicolas Buffe took it up brilliantly. The version they offer of Il Re pastore, one of Mozart's first operas, at the Théâtre du Châtelet is original to say the least. […] When the opera begins, images of a spaceship and a planet appear on the large screen placed on the stage. A war takes place, devices explode in space. It feels like watching the new episode of Star Wars but it's not. […] This completely offbeat staging works wonderfully. To talk about it, we met Olivier Fredj, who discussed the conception of opera and the obviousness of associating Mozart with pop culture. "

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My Culture

News from the performing arts

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Yannick Bezin

“The one proposed by Nicolas Buffe and Olivier Fredj is not lacking in spirit and the transposition of the action from the fields of Sidon to intergalactic spaces is not without relevance. Whether or not the viewer agrees with the aesthetic choices that are made, one cannot deny a careful reading of the entire work (score and libretto) and a skilful transposition. The presentation of the situation, for example, is perfectly summed up by the animated images preceding the opening, which also immediately establish the aesthetics of the whole show, reminding forty-year-old spectators of the animated ones of their youth (Albator, Goldorak, etc. .). Likewise, in the aesthetic of 18th century opera, the arias have the dramatic function of expressing the emotions of the characters and allowing the singers to show their virtuosity. The course of the action is interrupted to allow the outpouring of love or hatred. Olivier Fredj accompanied completely assumes this function of the air by proposing a specific staging for each of them: most often the singer is alone on stage, the decor changes, a video echoes the emotions expressed and sometimes even the singer. rises in the air (literally this time). […] The whole show (because it is indeed about that in view of the diversity of the scenic means mobilized) turns out to be hybrid in more than one way while showing great aesthetic and scenic coherence: work of the composer's youth but presenting formidable technical difficulties for the singers, a pastoral transposed into a space opera, an opera seria but here tinged with humor. "

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Yesterday at the Theater

“The zany continues with some kitschy and delicious special effects: the quintet often flies through the air and gets fiddled with adorable cyborgs with long arms. Helmeted dancers, cousins of Power Rangers and Daft Punk, perform thunderous acrobatics and funny sound effects of video games punctuate the songs of our actors. In short, there is no question here of being razor-sharp or pedantic: we don't take ourselves seriously and we have fun!

This Re pastore thus proves once again the desire of the Châtelet to allow opera to shine in a much wider field by accentuating the accessibility of its shows. Bet raised hands down with the colorful and spatial version of Buffe and Fredj. Big children as real toddlers will certainly find their account there. Go for it ! "

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Frenchtouch 2

“But it is above all the humor and the very contemporary inspiration of the staging that give all its freshness to this magnificent opera. […] A staging by Olivier Fredj and original and playful sets by Nicolas Buffe, which take us into an intergalactic universe.

For Olivier Fredj, “The pastor king” is a tale, with what it presents simple images, typical characters and symbols; an exaggerated reality just enough to be a fun and light painting of deep and serious issues.

“To represent this, I chose to take the opposite of the traditional codification of the work. Composed in airs separated by recitatives which advance the action, the work juxtaposes “numbers”, most of them following the same musical construction, and expressing, through repetition, the emotions of the characters. In this production, we will treat the recitatives like the cutscenes of a video game where love is the processor. Antoine Souchav ', whose group Scarlatti Goes Electro I knew, will therefore intervene by composing electronic sounds and sound effects inspired by science fiction for these recitals ”.

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Culture bubbles

“It is undoubtedly in the orchestra pit that we meet the most unexpected collaboration. The Matheus ensemble has an additional musician, installed alongside the harpsichordist. Himself in front of a keyboard (of a synthesizer, on the opposite side of the spectrum!), Antoine Souchav 'embellishes the recitals with sound effects and sound effects coming from the world of video games. The sound designer is not new to these experiments of mixing sounds and eras, adapting baroque music in a duet Scarlatti Goes Electro; with this synthetic sounds, there is no question of distorting the work but of complementing it, of making each of these aspects dialogue in order to renew it.

We are surprised at first, before getting into the game and marveling at the imagination and creative pleasure overflowing with this production. If in the staging, the first act surpasses the second, particularly in the interactivity between the characters and the sets, this production of the Théâtre du Châtelet will undoubtedly become a reference.

Provocative, exuberant, jubilant… The young Mozart would have loved it! "