Oeuvre: La Belle et la Bête

Musik zu einem Kultfilm von Jean Cocteau wird selbst sehenswertes Operndrama: Philip Glass’ Die Schöne und das Biest überzeugt in Susanne Lietzows Regieansatz als Opernstoff auf der Bühne des Staatstheaters Augsburg.

Philip Glass’ ability to draw an audience of massively varied age groups is impressive. The event in question, which ran for two nights, certainly addressed the Edinburgh International Festival 2013’s theme of how artists engage with technology.

When I first saw Jean Cocteau’s 1946 cinematic masterpiece La Belle et la Bête on DVD several years ago, its visual storytelling made such a strong impression that a few of its images became unforgettably burned into my memory: disembodied hands grasping candles, statues that blinked, and the Beast himself, a giant kitty-cat who was more pathetic and sad than terrifying.