"Him, Her and the Others…

Passion is an opera that reworks the myth of Orpheus but almost in reverse, so to speak.
“I found opposing passions to set to music – war, prayer and even death...”
In Passion, there are two characters: “Him”, a man, and “Her”, a woman. The others are called “Gli altri” [Italian for “the others”].
There is also a snake that we do not see but that we know is around somewhere...
Like “Lei” [Italian for “Her”] and “Lui” [Ital: “Him”], who are driven by the perpetual movement of one passion flowing into another, I imagine a type of music in which sound and word can never be distinguished. The passions cling to each other, oppose each other and divide into multiple paths traversed by fear, joy, pain, terror, desire, ecstasy, grief, love and anger.
The movement of Passion is that of a voyage. But “She” will refuse to return to the sun because she knows the end of that story. “He”, who is affected by all things but is always preparing for war, will allow himself to be forever buried with her “in that dark den, in which he knows the road of return to the sun is closed”. (Dante)"

Pascal Dusapin 

Watch the extracts of the opera l'opéra (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, 2010 / Sasha Waltz, staging):

Commissioned by Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

World premiere

29 June 2008, Aix-en-Provence / Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, Franck Ollu (cond.), Giuseppe Frigeni (director) 

World premiere (English version)

Geoffrey Paterson (cond.), Michael McCarthy & Caroline Finn (directors), London Sinfonietta, Ensemble EXAUDI and National Dance Company Wales 

11 October 2018, Anvil, Basingstoke

13 October 2018, QEH, London

23 October 2018, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff

30 October 2018, Snape Maltings, Suffolk

6 November 2018, Lowry, Saldord

10 November 2018, Theatr CLWYD, Mold