Almeida Opera 2006 Les Aveugles

production information

For his third chamber opera Swiss composer Xavier Dyer has set Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist masterpiece, Les Aveugle

One of Maeterlinck's shorter plays (soon followed by Pelléas et Mélisande) Les Aveugles is the devastating tale of a group of blind people who, stranded, await the return of their guide. Dayer's score remains true to Maeterlinck's poetic world, where dreams and reality coexist.

Dayer is an IRCAM trained composer whose theatrical settings of Ferdinand Pessoa texts include Le Marin, and, most recently, La Jeune Fille Tristesse for Joan Rogers at Zurich.

Marc Paquien, fast emerging as one of the best new talents in France, directs the young singers from the Paris Opera, with lighting by Dominque Bruguière (Luc Bondy's Cruel and Tender).