Marie-Ève Signeyrole

Sandra divides her time between her research into the melting ice caps and stand-up comedy. Disturbed by the impact of human activity on the environment, she wants to use humour to raise awareness. But people around her, even her own family, are sceptical. Just as Cassandra predicted the fall of Troy without being heeded, Sandra predicts the imminent approach of a terrible tragedy but no one is listening. Belgian composer Bernard Foccroulle, former director of La Monnaie and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, has chosen a highly topical theme for his first opera: ecological activism in the face of societal inertia. Cassandra's predictions may not have been heeded, but her story has been avidly read for over two thousand years.

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When a sharp-tongued court jester Rigoletto is cursed for his spiteful words, he is forced to hide his unworldly daughter Gilda from his own licentious master the Duke. For Verdi’s wonderful ambivalent hunchback, paradise is the peaceful home and family that he struggles to protect. Opéra Orchestre national Montpellier Occitanie’s production of Verdi’s opera confronts the two faces of Rigoletto: that of the loving father-monster who locks up his daughter from the very first scene, and his alter ego, the modern-day buffoon. While the latter, like a comedian alone on stage, sneers at power and the elite, the former reveals his darkest fears and persecution complex.

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In a soup kitchen, the recipients take turns mocking and supporting, lying and loving each other, spicing up the reality of their lives with a pinch of fantasy. Inspired by director Marie-Ève Signeyrole's real-life experience volunteering in a soup kitchen around Christmas, La Soupe Pop invites its audience to share a bowl of soup among the actors and singers on Montpellier's Opera Comédie stage. Halfway between theatre and cabaret, the immersive experience unfolds in a series of raw yet poetic scenes accompanied by the joyously melancholy music of British cult band The Tiger Lillies.

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