The Montreal Opera presents, starting Sunday, Enigmaa co-production with the Metz Opera-Théâtre. Enigma is an opera by Patrick Burgan based on the play Enigmatic variations by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, psychological closed session between a writer and an alleged journalist who loved the same woman.
When the room Enigmatic variations was created in Paris in 1996, the extent of the shock was recognized from the start. Facing each other were Alain Delon in the role of Abel Znorko, Nobel Prize winner for literature, and Francis Huster in the role of Erik Larsen, journalist who came to question Znorko about his latest novel, an exchange of letters between the writer and an unknown woman. Delon hadn’t stepped on the stage for 28 years.
Such a face-to-face encounter between two sacred monsters is reminiscent of Laurence Olivier confronting Michael Caine in The bloodhound (Sleuth) by Joseph L. Manckiewicz, based on the play by Anthony Shaffer (1970). But who would have imagined Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Alain Delon, Francis Huster, or their illustrious successors, starting to sing their implacable lines?
Sake rice
One man was not afraid of this: Patrick Burgan, composer born in 1960, student of Ivo Malec, Gérard Grisey and Betsy Jolas at the Paris Conservatoire, author, previously, of several operas. “When I take the initiative to transmute a literary work through sound, it is because I am sure that it will bring something to it,” says the composer at Duty. Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt shared our doubts. “This is not the first time that musical works have been made from my pieces and I have never really been convinced,” he admits. I entered this project with a grain of salt, because with music, we lose humor, spirit, a form of lightness and emotional rhythm. »
The key to success is the latitude allowed by the author in relation to the writing of the libretto: “When Patrick Burgan came to me, I saw him impregnated by the play. I told him: “The reduction you will make to bring you to a libretto will make me feel the spaces occupied by the music.” He gave me a discount that made me understand what he was going to do. The words were going to say one thing, the music was going to be able to say something else. The music carries the soul of the characters and adds a dimension of mystery, suspense and investigation to the narrative. I also saw that it would be able to unfold in a true song of love, an outpouring. So I said yes. I discovered the work at the Metz Opera and I was fascinated,” confirms the writer, happy to have “let it happen”.
In opera, the music imposes its point of view, compared to the theater where the actors fill space and time. Patrick Burgan treated Enigmatic variations like a sake brewery polishes a grain of rice to reveal the “ shinpaku » which will be subjected to fermentation. “I took out at least a third, almost half of the play. I only kept what could work with the music and with the firm conviction that the musical support would bring considerable emotion. » In the trimmed part, there were “things that were too down to earth, insults, swear words and formulas that work in spoken language when an actor puts a touch of irony into it. With music, we feel things, we get to the point. Everything that concerns everyday life would not work,” concludes the composer.
Attending a mystery
Music has a special status in the piece, since the disc of Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar is the woman’s joint gift to both lovers. “I wanted to write about love with this founding question in the piece: who do we love when we love? To love is neither to possess nor to know. To love is to assiduously frequent a mystery, a being who remains withdrawn into a freedom, an independence. »
When he was designing this piece, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt came across the work of Elgar. “I realize this is the perfect metaphor for what I mean. They are variations on a melody that we never hear. And what else is a loving relationship than multiple variations with a melody that we never hear, since we never possess the truth of a being? »
Patrick Burgan sees on stage “two very different beings in appearance, who, as the play unfolds, are linked by a feminine presence which brings them together enormously”. If he chose two tenors, it is to “convey the idea that it is the same person who knew the same woman”. The composer will use the orchestra to “play with the permutation of motifs or timbres and betray feelings. The orchestra is there to speak to us, to make us understand that there is someone who is lying and to influence the internal psychology of the characters.”
Convinced by EnigmaÉric-Emmanuel Schmitt has regained confidence in opera: “I am in the process of transforming The Gospel according to Pilate in opera libretto. When the subject lends itself to it, I let the music approach me. »