Until November 21, 2021, Bertrand Belin and La Féline are taking over the Opéra de Lyon to build together ten days of programming as part of “Opera Underground”, an event on the sidelines of the institution’s classic meetings.
A lover of musical experiences of all kinds and diversity, Richard Robert, the artistic director of the event, has chosen to give carte blanche to the two pop artists. A nice way to get the institution moving. The celebrations have started this saturday 13 november dbefore a full room, with two diametrically opposed concerts which thrilled the public.
When he arrives on stage, dressed in a black suit and simply accompanied by his dry guitar, Bertrand Belin measures the grandeur of the place and the event. “So here we are at ‘Loupéra'”, he announces calmly in his warm voice, sweeping his gaze across the orchestra to the third balcony. The great hall, just that, to inaugurate a unique carte blanche. “I want to stand here all alone, at the bottom, to sing from the bottom of this formidable big mouth that looks like hell and paradise “, he had said in all simplicity during a visit to the Opéra de Lyon. Here he is, facing us, an attentive audience eager to share this rare moment. Because with Bertrand Belin, things seem simple and yet everything is perfectly composed. Like some songs in his repertoire. He laughs at it himself. “Sometimes we have nothing to say, so we look out the window, the weather is neither beautiful nor ugly, it is gray, but there is not even a storm. And then we look in. low and we see a silhouette, and that’s how a song is born, with two words “, he says before starting the song Crazy, crazy, crazy.
Sitting on wooden pallets, Belin sings Hypernuit, his “single tube, that’s how it is“, he smiles, then he goes through part of his repertoire for an hour and takes us into his universe populated with chimeras and characters similar to those of a comic strip, so much they are nourished with details. The music and the voice of Bertrand Belin take on their full extent in this magical place where the acoustics perfectly echo the notes of dandy rock. The lone Breton wolf leaves the room, sending kisses in the stars and promises us a week in his image, punctuated by meetings deliciously unusual.
Agnès Gayraud, alias La Féline, has also chosen to make us rub shoulders with the stars. But unlike Bertrand Belin, the singer-philosopher now from Lyon has opted for “the maximum version”. On stage, the musicians of the Opera orchestra reinterpret his repertoire with his two accomplices, a bass player and a drummer. A luxury for this pop artist more accustomed to contemporary music scenes.
For an hour, the concert propels us into space thanks to videos projected on a giant screen and the voice of La Féline soars to classical sounds of violins and electric guitar. The mixture works perfectly and the public begins to waddle on the armchairs of the Opera when the whole makes thunder the title Where is your soul.
The spectators give him a standing ovation. We just regret that La Féline was not joined by Bertrand Belin for a final beautiful duet at the height of the evening.
The concert was to give the relay to the carte blanche. “We came in cuckoo to populate a place that is not ours, music, musicians and musicians that we cherish. They will play everywhere in this secular place, from the basement to the top floor, hence you can see the roofs of Lyon. “, announce Bertrand Belin and La Féline in their note of intent.
It is therefore with their respective desires that the program has gradually been built. In turn musicians, authors, music lovers, but also researchers in their discipline, Bertrand Belin and Agnès Gayraud have concocted their carte blanche like a vibrant cartography. The Lyon Opera Underground week therefore promises us discoveries, experiences, readings, concerts, trips to the world here and to distant lands. With notably Rodolphe Burger, Star Feminine Band and a creation around Philip Glass …
The full program of the Carte Blanche of the Opera Undergound.