Organization

Conductor

Laurence Equilbey

Stage director

David Bobée

Set designer

Aurélie Lemaignen

Costume designer

Alain Blanchot

Lighting designer

Stéphane Babi Aubert

Video designer

José Gherrak

Chorus master

Christophe Grapperon

Singer

Tenor

Michael Spyres

Rodolphe

Soprano

Vannina Santoni

Agnès

Marion Lebègue

The Grandmother

Bass

Jérôme Boutillier

Le comte Ludorf

Jodie Devos

Arthur

Jean Teitgen

Peter the Hermit

Luc Bertin-Hugault

Le baron Moldaw

Enguerrand de Hys

Fritz

Olivia Doray

Anna

Pierre-Antoine Chaumien

Arnold

Julien Neyer

Norberg

Vincent Eveno

Theobald

Orchestra

Insula Orchestra

Palazzetto Bru Zane

Opéra Comique

La Nonne sanglante -  (The Bloody Nun)

Paris

France

Opéra-Comique

In a medieval Bohemia troubled by hereditary conflicts, Rodolphe defies his father and challenges his ancestors out of love for the rival clan’s daughter, offered as a pledge of peace to his own brother. But Agnès seems alarmingly like the ghost who haunts Moldaw’s castle...

Loosely adapted from Matthew Lewis's The Monk, a Gothic novel in vogue among the Romantics, the libretto for La Nonne sanglante on which Gounod composed his opera was the work of legendary librettist Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. The opera’s modest but underwhelming success during a period of crisis for the Paris Opera contributed to the sacking of Paris Opera director Nestor Roqueplan, whose successor François Crosnier called the opera “filth” and cancelled the rest of its 1854 run.

At the Opéra Comique in 2018, Gounod’s opera comes roaring back to live thanks to three great enthusiasts of Romantic torments: renowned conductor Laurence Equilbey, stage director David Bobée, and tenor Michael Spyres, an outstanding Rodolphe. The production highlights the medieval character of the libretto while never coming off as dated—the weary warriors and wild women almost call to mind Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. A black and white world, stained red by the Nun’s blood-soaked dress…

In a medieval Bohemia troubled by hereditary conflicts, Rodolphe defies his father and challenges his ancestors out of love for the rival clan’s daughter, offered as a pledge of peace to his own brother. But Agnès is astoundingly like the ghost who haunts Moldaw’s castle. On a libretto drawn on The Monk by Matthew Lewis, a Gothic novel in vogue among the Romantics, La Nonne sanglante inspired Gounod with his second opera. The prudish director of the Opéra cancelled it despite its polished, gloomy and labyrinthine score, serving a text that highlighted impulses still unexplored. The Opéra Comique has entrusted the revival of La Nonne Sanglante to three great enthusiasts of Romantic torments: Laurence Equilbey as conductor, David Bobée as stage director and Michael Spyres who played a fiery Masaniello in La Muette de Portici.

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