Schwanengesang D744

Can we overturn the traditional theatrical relationship between an active stage and a passive audience that consumes a performance? Can we bring out the fragility, pain and emotion of the performers behind their performative mastery? This is what soprano Kerstin Avemo, pianist Alain Franco and actress Valérie Dréville, for whom Romeo Castellucci wrote the text of this truly direct address to the audience, are attempting.

Beyond the seductive lyricism of this Swansong, beyond the superb poems set to music by Schubert, testifying to abandonment in the face of death, the artists expose themselves, go beyond the usual codes, put themselves in danger by letting their fragility show, crossing the line that traditionally separates acting and true emotion, felt but hidden. A hard-hitting performance, radical but "stripping" and shattering.