Original literary creation by Yves Sarda inspired by Apparitions (Fantaisie) , a fantastic short story by Ivan Tourgueniev.

Duration: approx. 1H20' (30' - 20' - 30')

Awaiting creation

La fille de l'air abandons the traditional alternation of stories and airs in favor of a moving, organic form: a sound mass from which emerge the solo voices – sung or narrative – as well as those of the female choir and the instrumentalists. It is a dreamlike and poetic opera whose form by association of ideas – as in a dream – is a sort of great spiral.

Summary

A man arrested by Ellis - his female double - is drawn into long night flights from England to Italy, from Russia to Paris and Mannheim.

Flight after flight, this one detaches itself from the world while its double - a kind of pale ghost - gradually incarnates until it becomes a woman of flesh and blood. She ends up dying leaving him alone, without answers to his questions but without regrets either.

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the theme of the double is treated here in a dynamic, almost kinetic way, in a dreamlike atmosphere reminiscent of certain paintings by Chagall. A poetics of upheaval is developed there: we are in a universe where any dream can become a nightmare. At the end of these flights, the life of the narrator is upset, but enriched by the adventure and the dialogue with his double, as well as by the experience of the spectacle of nature, grandiose, soothing or terrifying.

Historical context

In a short text, Ivan Turgenev brings together two themes that are dear to him: the memory of a dream in which he flies and his great passion for nature. He writes this news following a break with Pauline Viardot - his muse for life - carrying out a kind of therapy 50 years before the invention of psychoanalysis. This is probably the reason why Turgenev was particularly attached to this text.

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musical form

The musical breakdown echoes that of the text. The work is designed in one piece but subdivided into 5 parts forming an arch:

• Prologue (10'): In the bedroom

• Act I (20''): 1st flight

• Act II (20'): 2nd flight

• Act III (30'): 3rd flight (preceded by a short prologue)

• Epilogue: the return

The first part of the work forms a whole: it is the dream of a night. It can possibly be played alone. In this case, revert to the title of Apparitions (La fille de l'air).

Training

Voice

• 2 solo voices: mezzo (Ellis) and bass-baritone (the Narrator)

• 3 soloists from the choir (soprano, mezzo-soprano and mezzo)

• Female choir or young girls or master (multiple of 3 per section: from 12 to 21)

• Voiceover not mandatory

Instrumental ensemble

• Flute (+ G)

• Oboe (+ ca)

• Bass clarinet (+ Bb)

• Bassoon

• Horn (+ flugelhorn)

• Percussion

• Piano

• Bass