L’Odysée I Jules Matton

Opera for 12 landscapes, soloists, string quartet and orphans based on the work of Homer.
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Telemachus, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, is alone on the shore. He is angry at his father who has left, and does not know how to build himself up.

On the beach, a group of children appears.

They are the orphaned children, probably the children of the sailors who have left. There is Mentor, the leader of the group, and Athena, a young goddess. Together they console Telemachus, play with him and invent the exploits - but also the failures - of their fathers. In turn, they sing the Odyssey, the land of the lotophagi, the Cyclops, Circe, adventure, and together, helped by song and epic, they learn to grow up.

The booklet
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What is writing a libretto ? How much space should the music have in the writing ? What rhythm should be used ? And what does it mean to write an opera with a children's choir and three soloists ? And the string quartet, what place should it have ? And what does it mean to write from Homer's work ? Should we make an adaptation ? Preserve the most emblematic moments of the work ? Play with the collective memory of the Odyssey ? Is there not some pleasure in finding the Cyclops? The sirens? Circe ? Where does this work touch us today ?

After a few days of reflection, we decided to create a work of art, crossed by the memory of Homer. And to focus our work on the character of Telemachus.

Telemachus, alone on the beach, awaits the return of his father... and also asks himself questions: "What does it mean to grow up without a father figure? Why did his father leave? And this father? Who is he? With whom can he identify ? How do you grow up ? On the beach, a group of children. The orphaned children - perhaps also the children of the sailors who left, Mentor, the leader of the band, and Athena, a very young goddess. Together they console Telemachus, play games with him, sing songs and invent the exploits - but also the failures - of their fathers. And together, helped by fiction, they learn to grow up.

The music
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Elemachus and about twenty children are on a beach. From the height of his grief, Telemachus mourns the absence of his father. The children try to comfort him by showing him how their fathers, led by Ulysses, heroically lived their adventures. They mime these adventures to Telemachus to show him how great his father is, how Telemachus should not blame him for leaving him in Ithaca. Athena joins the children to contradict his sadness and explain how all this was necessary. Telemachus is gradually won over by love and the hope of seeing Odysseus, his father, again. 


The music will alternate between ambiguous, violent harmonies and clearer, more diaphanous ones. The choir will include a few soloists with an incisive, direct and childlike language, in dialogue with the three adults. The string quartet will form the backbone of the successive textures. Tutti passages, solos and intermediates will alternate. The air voices will also alternate as solos, duets and trios, in dialogue or not with the choir and the quartet. In this way, a contrasting ensemble will highlight the story and the different and successive states of mind of the characters.