Annette Seiltgen (L, Clytemnestre) and Cassandre Berthon (R, Iphigenie) rehearse the new production of Iphigénie En Aulide, Claude Schnitzler conductor, that debuts at Filature Hall in Mulhouse tonight. The 1774 tragedy is performed with the Opera National du Rhin's chorus and the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse. As per director Renaud Doucet's (of the Barbe Et Doucet team, the Dolce & Gabbana of opera direction) vision, Gluck's opera, beloved by Roussseau and Kirsten Dunst (aka Marie Antoinette), takes place in a watery, 1980s Euro -discothéque Aulis, populated by characters in gray leather pants and leftover guys in suits and sunglasses from The Matrix.
(Here you can see Avi Klemberg-Achilles in a safari suit embrace Cassandre Berthon-Iphigénie).
Doucet's money quote, read recently by OC in a French magazine, is that:
"Music doesn't exist... emotions create the music, not the other way around".