Synopsis
Four boys from the land of eternal night steal the Moon and take it home with them to light up their surroundings. When they become adults, they divide it into four pieces, which they take to the underworld with them when they die. But the light causes havoc, forcing St. Peter to take back the Moon and hang it from a star to illuminate dreams and allay fear of the dark.
A show of light
A fan of musical theater, which allowed him to reach a large audience, Carl Orff decided to set the Grimms' The Moon to music. The somewhat simplistic story of the Moon being stolen and then cut into quarters, then causing chaos in hell before being taken back to heaven by St Peter, stimulated the composer's imagination. Completed just before World War II, the work is a thinly veiled critique of selfish people who put their own interests first. This "little theatre of the world in one act" had its first performance on February 5, 1939, in Munich, under the musical direction of Clemens Krauss, staged by Rudolf Hartmann. Merging music, words and drama, The Moon is a work of great rhythmic and vocal modernity.
Director James Bonas and videographer and illustrator Grégoire Pont once again join forces for this work, taking the audience into a whirlwind of emotions!
Revival of the 2020 Opera de Lyon production
