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Video on demand: Le Viol de Lucrèce

Watch online on play.operadeparis.frOpéra national de ParisRecorded at Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris, France
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Dates/times in your browser's time zone
On demand until Monday 31 August 2026 23:59
Performers
Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris
Léo WarynskiConductor
Jeanne CandelDirector
Lisa NavarroSet Designer
Pauline KiefferCostume Designer
César GodefroyLighting Designer
Orchestre-Atelier OstinatO
Ensemble Multilatérale
Marie-Andrée Bouchard-LesieurMezzo-sopranoLucretia
Aaron PendletonBassCollatinus
Danylo MatviienkoBaritoneJunius
Alexander YorkBaritoneTarquinius
Cornelia OncioiuMezzo-sopranoBianca
Kseniia ProshinaSopranoLucia
Andrea Cueva MolnarSopranoFemale Chorus
Tobias WestmanTenorMale Chorus

Benjamin Britten composed The Rape of Lucretia in 1946 after a radio-drama by André Obey. Britten and his librettist, two convinced pacifists involved way before WWII, address a European society bruised by war and hate.

Running from the grand operatic machine, their inspiration drove them to a more intimate construction, the chamber opera. Britten wrote indeed for a small number of musicians and singers-actors in a musical and dramatic language where the narration exceeds the illusion on stage.

Britten chose the myth of the dedicated and suicidal wife and wrote a piece that interrogates desire in its relation with anxiety: mutual love, gulty will and frustration.

Britten makes us think about the violence in human relations, about sexuality and its dark zones. With Lucretia as heroin and victim, Britten makes us face the tragic human condition.

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