| La Boîte à joujoux
by Claude Debussy
Italian Premiere and L’Histoire de Babar
by Francis Poulenc
a melodrama based upon a text by
Jean de Brunhoff
with Didier Sandre
and the musicians of
L’Orchestre National de Lyon
conductor Philippe Grammatico
mise en espace Claudia Stavisky
light design Franck Thévenon
set design Christian Fenouillat
coproduction
Les Célestins Théâtre de Lyon
and L´orchestre National de Lyon | La Boîte à joujoux
In 1913, the illustrator André Hellé contacted the greatest French composer of the time, Claude Debussy to ask him to write the score for a children’s book that he had just illustrated. Debussy accepted right away, surely to give it to his 4-year-old muse and daughter Claude-Emma, tenderly nicknamed Chouchou. He started writing the music inspired by the book but unfortunately died without ending its orchestration that was completed by his student André Caplet. A musical performance in several parts that leads us into the magic happenings that take place in a toyshop during an enchanted night.
L’Histoire de Babar
The story of the king of elephants Babar, of his wife Céleste, of the Old Lady, the malicious monkey Zephyr, and the old wise elephant Cornélius… nothing more than a story invented by a mother, Cécile de Brunhoff, for her children. Her husband decides to make a book from them and asks his brother Michel to take care of the illustrations. The children’s book by Jean and Michel de Brunhoff was published in 1931 and had immediate and enormous success. Then, one day, a child hears her cousin, the composer Francis Poulenc, play the piano and hands him her copy of Babar, asking him to compose some music for the story. Poulenc obeys and composes the music for the stories of the de Brunhoff brothers. When the story is sad, the music seems to cry, in other moments is frightening or becomes fun, cheerful, a dance… The score was composed for piano by Poulenc and later orchestrated by another composer, Jean Françaix. Today it can be heard in a third version, orchestrated by Philippe Grammatico.
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