Confronting the night is probably the first time a child feels destabilised. The familiar outlines of the bedroom fade away into the darkness, the comforting face of the mother disappears behind the door and withdraws to the confines of the corridor. Space and time become blurred and expand, favouring metamorphoses. The night becomes the theatre where the positive values of the day are reversed, where the feeling of being safe gives way to the fear of being abandoned and where the forces of destruction are embodied. The night seems to have no end.
Inspired by the tradition of story-telling, L’Enfant et la Nuit deals with this spiritual fight and the trial of the “dark night”, opening with the theme of the absent mother. She is sick and resting at the other end of the corridor. As refugees in their bedroom, the children associate the fear of loss with the reign of darkness. Virgile promises his little sister that he will go through this night and bring back the day. This heroic quest will lead him to confront the evil double of the mother, Noctilia, who longs for eternal beauty. The secret of her beauty lies in a child’s pain and tears. Virgile will resist the seductions of disillusion (a corrupt scientist, a dream hunter, a tragic clown – all of them symbolizing “false fathers”) and will eventually fulfil his promise. He triumphs over the night by bringing joy back to life though dreams and laughter.
Olivier Balazuc
(translation Philippe Do)
Commissionned by the Académie musicale de Villecroze, 2008.
Versions
This work is available in three versions, which only have different instrumentations:
— solists, children choir, 2 pianos and 2 percussions
— solists, children choir, 17 instruments
— solists, children choir, orchestra
Press review
Un merveilleux conte lyrique mis en musique par Franck Villard.
Avec L’Enfant et la Nuit, Franck Villard et Olivier Balazuc signent une œuvre de haut vol, sur le thème mystique de l’affrontement et de la traversée de la nuit comme étapes initiatiques du développement de l’enfant. Ce conte lyrique pour enfants offre une introduction subtile et pédagogique aux grands mythes des Mystères sacrés, ainsi qu’aux langages de la musique et de l’opéra. […] La merveilleuse musique de Franck Villard a cette qualité rare d’être éminemment dramatique et caractérisée, elle ouvre une voie lyrique qu’on espère féconde.
Laurent Deburge, toutelaculture.com
Le texte est très poétique, et le conte plein de rebondissements.
Daniel Blackstone, L’Éducation musicale
Excerpts
« Qui je suis ? »
« De la féerie, des bois enchanteurs »
« Miracle, il est secoué de sanglots »
« Et si un jour »
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