The Man Who Laughs | |
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Opera by Airat Ichmouratov | |
Librettist | Bertrand Laverdure |
Language | French |
Based on | Victor Hugo's novel The Man Who Laughs |
Premiere | 31 May 2023 Claude Champagne Hall, Montreal |
The Man Who Laughs is an opera in two acts with a prologue by Canadian composer Airat Ichmouratov, to a libretto in French by poet Bertrand Laverdure, adapted from the eponymous novel by Victor Hugo. Commissioned by Festival Classica, it was premiered in concert version, conducted by Airat Ichmouratov on May 31, 2023, in Montreal, Canada. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The opera is set in England in two parts. First in 1690, in the prologue, when the poet and showman Ursus meets ten-year-old Gwynplaine, who is disfigured, and one-year-old Dea, who is blind. Both are orphans and Ursus adopts them. Then, fifteen years later, in 1705, Ursus's play about Gwynplaine and Dea became a great success. They gave a performance in London. On this occasion, Gwynplaine is confronted with his past as an aristocrat's child by the lawman Barkilphedro. He is seduced by Duchess Josiane and ends up denying his new reality as Lord. But it's too late to turn back the clock. Déa, his love, dies, and as soon as he finds her, Gwynplaine no longer wants to live and takes his own life.
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 31 May 2023 |
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Gwynplaine, street performer (age 25) | baritone | Hugo Laporte |
Gwynplaine child (10 years) | soprano | Janelle Lucyck |
Ursus, poet and showman (50 years) | bass-baritone | Marc Boucher |
Barkilphedro, lawman (50 years) | baritone | Jean-François Lapointe |
Duchess Josiane, aristocrat (32 years) | mezzo-soprano | Florence Bourget |
Fibi, bohemian (23 years) | soprano | Sophie Naubert |
Dea, street performer (16 years) | soprano | Magali Simard-Galdès |
Lord David, aristocrat (40 years) | tenor | Antonio Figueroa |
Villagers, spectators in London, Lords in the House of Lords |
The Man Who Laughs is scored for two flutes (the second doubling piccolo); two oboes; two clarinets in B-flat; two bassoons (the second doubling contrabassoon; four French horns; two trumpets; three trombones; one bass trombone; tuba; a percussion section with timpani, cymbals, triangle, snare drum, bass drum, tam-tam, glockenspiel, xylophone, tubular bells, wind machine; harp; and strings.
Victor-Marie Hugo, sometimes nicknamed the Ocean Man, was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms.
Laughing Man may refer to:
The Man Who Laughs is a novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869 under the French title L'Homme qui rit. It takes place in England beginning in 1690 and extends into the early 18th century reign of Queen Anne. It depicts England's royalty and aristocracy of the time as cruel and power-hungry. Hugo intended parallels with the France of Louis-Philippe and the Régence.
Le roi s'amuse is a French play in five acts written by Victor Hugo. First performed on 22 November 1832 but banned by the government after one evening, the play was used for Giuseppe Verdi's 1851 opera Rigoletto.
The Laughing Cow is a brand of processed cheese products made by Fromageries Bel since 1921. The name refers in particular to the brand's most popular product, the spreadable wedge.
"The Laughing Man" is a short story by J. D. Salinger, published originally in The New Yorker on March 19, 1949; and also in Salinger's short story collection Nine Stories. It largely takes the structure of a story within a story and is thematically occupied with the relationship between narrative and narrator, and the end of youth. The story is inspired by the 1869 Victor Hugo novel of the same name: The Man Who Laughs.
The Man Who Laughs is a romantic novel by Victor Hugo originally published in June 1869 under the French title L'homme qui rit.
The Man Who Laughs is a 1928 American synchronized sound romantic drama film directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both sound-on-disc and sound-on-film processes. The film is an adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1869 novel of the same name, and stars Mary Philbin as the blind Dea and Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine. The film is known for the grotesque grin on the character Gwynplaine's face, which often leads it to be classified as a horror film. Film critic Roger Ebert stated "The Man Who Laughs is a melodrama, at times even a swashbuckler, but so steeped in expressionist gloom that it plays like a horror film."
21st-century classical music is Western art music in the contemporary classical tradition that has been produced since the year 2000. A loose and ongoing period, 21st-century classical music is defined entirely by the calendar and does not refer to a musical style in the sense of Baroque or Romantic music.
Denis Podalydès is a French actor and scriptwriter of Greek descent. Podalydès has appeared in more than 140 films and television shows since 1989. He starred in The Officers' Ward, which was entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.
The Grinning Face, aka The Man Who Laughs, is a 1921 Austrian-German silent horror film directed by Julius Herska and starring Franz Höbling, Nora Gregor and Lucienne Delacroix. It is an adaptation of the 1869 novel The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo.
Christa Théret is a French actor, best known for their roles as Lola in LOL and as Andrée Heuschling in Renoir.
Airat Rafailovich Ichmouratov born 28 June 1973, is a Volga Tatar born Russian / Canadian composer, conductor and klezmer clarinetist. He is a founding member and clarinetist of award-winning Montreal-based klezmer group Kleztory and invited professor at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.
The Man Who Laughs is a 2012 French/Czech romantic musical drama film produced by EuropaCorp and based on the 1869 eponymous novel by Victor Hugo.
Xavier Depraz, néXavier Marcel Delaruelle was a French opera singer and actor.
The Symphony in A minor, "On the Ruins of an Ancient Fort", Op. 55, was composed by Airat Ichmouratov in 2017 with support by Longueuil Arts Council. It was premiered in Longueuil City on 28 September 2018 by Longueuil Symphony Orchestra under the baton of French-Canadian conductor Marc David. Ichmouratov's Symphony seeks to recreate the vitality of Longueuil, a city on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, from its beginnings as an outpost of New France to the present day.
The Overture Maslenitsa, Op. 36, was composed by Airat Ichmouratov during 2012 - 2013 years. It was commissioned and premiered in Chicoutimi, Canada on 24 February 2013 by L'Orchestre Symphonique du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean under the baton of French-Canadian conductor Jacques Clément.
The Viola Concerto N1, Op. 7, was composed by Airat Ichmouratov in 2004. It was commissioned and premiered by Elvira Misbakhova, a Canadian violist, today the principal viola of Orchestre Métropolitain, who was in 2004 a student at University of Montreal and was looking for new romantic viola concerto for her Doctoral program recital. Concerto was premiered at Claude Champagne Concert Hall in Montreal, Canada on 24 February 2005 by students of University of Montreal under the baton of composer Airat Ichmouratov.
Airat Ichmouratov's Concerto Grosso N1, Op. 28, was composed in 2011. It was commissioned and premiered on 15 July 2011 by French – Canadian conductor Jean-François Rivest and Orford Camerata at Orford Art's Centre, Orford, Canada. Ichmouratov himself was performing solo clarinet part as well on the recording of Concerto Grosso N1, that was released on Chandos in 2019.
The Overture "The Myth of Falcon", Op. 65, was composed by Airat Ichmouratov during 2019 – 2020 years. It was commissioned and premiered at Grand Hall, Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, in Budapest, Hungary on 9 October 2020 by MAV Budapest Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Israel-born conductor Daniel Boico.