Louise – Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2025 – Gustave Charpentier

Depuis le jour où je me suis donnée
Toute fleurie semble ma destinée
Je crois rêver sous un ciel de féerie
L'âme encore grisée de ton premier baiser!

Few passages in opera evoke so vividly the pleasure of love and its potential to emancipate a young woman as this most famous aria in Louise. Born into a working-class family with strict morals, the heroine ultimately chooses to face an uncertain future alone, a future personified by Paris, the city of freedom and perdition.

With his "roman musical" (a musical novel in operatic form), which combines social concerns with idealistic aspirations, lyrical flights of great beauty, and vivid, picturesque scenes, Gustave Charpentier offered one of the twentieth century’s first truly modern operas. Connoisseur of the work, Christof Loy reveals the darker side of a society that, far from liberating its daughters, offers them only tawdry romances to sublimate a horizon clouded by frustration.

Elsa Dreisig continues her exploration of roles portraying determined, strong-willed young women. She is joined by some of the brightest champions of the French operatic repertoire under the baton of Giacomo Sagripanti, who leads the Choir and Orchestra of the Opéra de Lyon.

Cast

• Louise: Elsa Dreisig
• Julien, Le Noctambule: Adam Smith
• La Mère, La Première de l'atelier: Sophie Koch
• Le Père, Le Chiffonnier: Nicolas Courjal
• Un Marchand d'habits, Le Pape des fous: Grégoire Mour
• La Balayeuse: Annick Massis
• Irma: Marianne Croux
• Gertrude: Carol Garcia
• Camille: Karolina Bengtsson
• Madeleine: Marie-Thérèse Keller
• Marguerite, La Laitière: Julie Pasturaud
• Elise, La petite Chiffonnière: Marion Vergez-Pascal
• Suzanne, La Glaneuse de charbon: Marion Lebègue
• Blanche, La Plieuse de journaux: Jennifer Courcier
• L'Apprentie, Le Gavroche: Céleste Pinel
• Le Bricoleur: Frédéric Caton

Ensemble

• Orchestra and Choir: Opéra de Lyon
• Children's choir: Maîtrise des Bouches‑du‑Rhône