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Funeral blues  The Missing Cabaret
Grand Theater of Luxembourg  & Bouffes du Nord Theater
January 2018 - April 2019
WH Auden / B. Britten

FUNERAL BLUES_1860 text.jpg

Staging                       OLIVIER FREDJ

Backdrops                              PHILIPPINE ORDINAIRE

Costumes                           FREDERIC LLINARES

Lights                           NATHALIE PERRIER   

 

B. Britten                            LAURENT NAOURI

WH Auden                          RICHARD CLOTHIER

Gypsy Rose Lee                       CATHY KRIER

Cathy Krier as Gypsy Rose Lee
New Year's Greetings
The Night Mail Cabaret
Nocturne Britten
Gay Relationships Britten Auden
Out  of the shower
Funeral Blues
Locker room
badminton
Miss Gee Puppet show
Love Rose Homo
Photo Gilbert Garcin
Britten Cabaret
Recitative by Death
Mirror eyeliner
On the Telephone
Missing Elements
W.H. Auden
the Missing Cabaret
Someone's missing
Auden and Britten
Gypsy Rose Lee
Britain 1930
Self Contemplating
Gilbert Garcin
Bouffes du Nord
Poetry Poésie
FUNERAL BLUES_1588
FUNERAL BLUES_1984
B. Britten
FUNERAL BLUES_1968

Auden’s poetical work that I have chosen to illustrate on stage is a work on what is lacking.

What is lacking and so desire itself.

What is lacking in the quest for satisfaction.

What is lackng in loss.

What is lacking in the voluptuous impatience it creates.

What is lacking in the painful waiting it implies.

What is lacking and disappears.

Representing what is lacking, the emotion and human aspect is the key to the scenic incarnation we hope to convey.

Britten’s music, with the speaking and singing voices answer one another without seeing each other, as if there were a presence of absence, a memory or hope. In the first part, which is mainly spoken with the singing voice answering from behind the door, thus plunging the spectator into absence and want, allowing him or her to hear without seeing, making him or her guess and hope that these two monologues may come together at last.

By seeking inspiration in everyday poetic images, namely that of the photographer Gilbert Garcin, want the audience to discover Auden’s work, from its most universal to its most private, Auden with himself and with his reader. We wish to give the audience the possibility of ‘reading’ inside the man, on hearing the voice of the author. The idea is to invite the spectator to shudder at the universal thought of ‘want’, loss and death, that thunders at the slightest moment like the far off rumbling at a picnic.

Funeral Blues, The Missing Cabaret, reunites the composer Benjamin Britten and the poet, Wystan Hugh Auden in this poetic performance. It was presented at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, then at the Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg. 

Funeral Blues - Laurent Naouri - Cathy Krier
00:00 / 00:00
Tell me the truth about Love - Laurent Naouri - Cathy Krier
00:00 / 00:00

ON THIS ISLAND

- NOW THE LEAVES ARE FALLING FAST

- NIGHT

- AS IT IS, PLENTY

FISH IN THE UNRUFFLED LAKES

- TO LIE FLAT ON THE BACK

-  THE SUN SHINES DOWN- 

- WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND?

- UNDERNEATH THE ABJECT WILLOW

CABARET SONGS

- TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE

- FUNERAL BLUES

- JOHNNY

- CALYPSO

WHEN YOU'RE FEELING LIKE

EXPRESSING YOUR AFFECTION

Johnny - Cabaret songs - B. Britten / W.H Auden
00:00 / 00:00
Funeral Blues - the Missing Cabaret

Funeral Blues - the Missing Cabaret

Watch Now

Stage Director

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