Tesla: we know the very chic electric car. Minus the engineer – Nikola Tesla – to whom the car manufacturer paid tribute by borrowing his name, a brilliant figure of the end of the 19th century, especially in the field of electricity. If his story is particularly touching, it is because we owe a lot – and in particular the alternating current for the distribution of electricity – to this astonishing mad scientist, half professor Tournesol, half dandy, died in 1943 in poverty. and in oblivion, unable to derive the fair benefit from his inventions.
In 2010, Jean Echenoz devoted a (very) fictionalized biography to him, Lightnings (at Midnight). It is now carried on stage at the Opéra Comique at the initiative of its director Olivier Mantei (leaving these days for the Philharmonie). An adaptation all the more natural in these places, we explained in the presentation, that the Salle Favart was, it seems, the first electrified theater in Europe. The libretto was entrusted to Jean Echenoz himself and it is on this text that Philippe Hersant composed the music.
Do we find here the universe of the author of I am leaving or from Ravel ? Obviously, the romantic writing, abundant and full of details, cannot exist, the libretto being written largely in verse, alexandrines, octosyllables or free. But Jean Echenoz’s amused eye on history, his humor never far from the absurd, are there.
The opera therefore tells the story of Tesla’s American adventure (already renamed Gregor in the book), who came from Eastern Europe to develop his ideals of electricity for all. And faced with the harsh capitalist law, embodied by another engineer, Thomas Edison, who reigns supreme in the New York of the industrial revolution. Lightning deliberately forces the opposition of the two men. Thus sings the choir (the excellent Aedes ensemble) at the very end of the work: “Both have changed our space. They have accelerated time. But one knows how to sell, and the other does not. (…) One questions his wallet when the other addresses the Martians “.
Funny zig, indeed, that this Gregor: jack-of-all-trades with an extraordinary speed of execution, he invents, inhabited by flashes, and isolates himself… to speak to birds and aliens. Baritone Jean-Christophe Lanièce encapsulates this poet of science well in playing as well as in voice, skilfully oscillating between controlled bass and treble. In front of him, bass baritone André Heyboer is a caricature Edison, conceited and cruel: “I am the magician of modern America. It is not a Serbian immigrant and vaguely educated who will claim to improve my work”, he sings remarkably, to heady music. Tenor François Rougier and bass Jérôme Boutillier complete the male cast with great accuracy. The first to embody in Norman the only true friendship of Gregor in this low world, the second on the contrary to play the rude Parker, an industry magnate who extracts what he can from Gregor before letting go.
Two female characters, invented from scratch by Jean Echenoz, give beautiful lyrical moments: Betty, the first female journalist in New York City, both an actress in the story and commentator on Gregor’s fate, is carried by the voice of lyric soprano by Elsa Benoit. And especially Ethel (the remarkable mezzo Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur), married woman in love with Gregor, offers a sentimental fiber to the room with a memorable air, Friday is Venus day, performed on vibraphone arpeggios (in fact, a synthesizer).
Philippe Hersant’s joyful music seduces for the delicious dialogue he establishes between contemporary writing and legacies of the past. “Memory plays an important role in my composition process”, the musician explained to us a few years ago. A few “scholarly” quotes make their appearance there, such as the scherzo from Dvorak’s New World Symphony, but it is essentially reminiscences of popular music that inhabit the ensemble: a dance from the Balkans, Irish drinking songs, Christmas carols and above all the American musical and jazz, dominant tones which perfectly match the story.
Same spirit: the Manhattan skyline thrones on the stage of the Opéra Comique, all in turn solar, gray or almost black, depending on the scene. The director Clément Hervieu-Léger (member of the Comédie Française) has thus reinforced the imaginary and poetic dimension of the text with beautiful paintings: from Gregor’s workshops to Edison’s factories, including Parker social salons. , its sliding panels (designed by Aurélie Maestre) allow around twenty changes of scenery and places before our eyes.
“Les éclairs”, Jean Echenoz and Philippe Hersant, on November 8 at the Opéra Comique, in Paris