Two New Operas Test Modernity at Parisian Houses

Two new operatic works in Paris challenge the notion that opera resists lasting avant-garde transformation. Philippe Boesmans' 'Yvonne de Bourgogne' premiered January 24 at the Palais Garnier, commissioned by the Opéra national de Paris. Based on Witold Gombrowicz's 1933 play, the libretto by Luc Bondy retains only a third of the original text. The title character, a mute role performed by Dörte Lyssewski, never sings but her lyricism appears only as a voice-off in Boesmans' score. The composer describes the piece as about desire and disgust. At the Opéra Comique from February 14 to 18, Peter Eötvös' 'Lady Sarashina' (created March 4, 2008 at the Opéra national de Lyon) takes the opposite approach. Inspired by an 11th-century Japanese diary, it uses amplified voices and electronic flux at the periphery, with three clarinetists placed in the hall. The chamber format and stylized staging by Ushio Amagatsu create an enveloping intimacy. Both works, though different in style, confine technological and aesthetic modernity to the margins of the operatic experience.