The Rape of Lucretia by Britten, From (2021/2021), Directed by Jeanne Candel, Conductor Léo Warynski, Théâtre des Bouffes-du-Nord, Paris, France

By composing Le Viol de Lucrèce in 1946, based on a play by André Obey, Britten and his librettist, convinced and committed pacifists since well before the war, address a European society scarred by war and hatred. By renouncing the great operatic machine, they approach for the first time the more intimate form of chamber opera. Britten indeed writes for a small group of musicians and expressive singer-actors in a musical and theatrical language where the force of the narration takes precedence over the scenic illusion. Britten takes up the myth of the virtuous and suicidal wife on her own account by writing a score of exceptionally evocative power which questions desire and its vertigo of anguish in all its forms: reciprocal love, guilty desires and frustration. Britten invites us to reflect on the violence of human relationships, on sexuality and its gray areas. Through the force of the incarnation of her heroine-victim, Britten confronts us with the tragedy of the human condition.