Gay-themed "Les Feluettes" gets two revivals

Étienne Dupuis and Jean-Michel Richer

Australian composer Kevin March and Quebec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard's opera Les Feluettes (Lilies), which had its world premiere last year at Opéra de Montréal, will now be presented at Pacific Opera Victoria and the Edmonton Opera.

The production opens at Pacific Opera Victoria on April 20 and runs through April 30.  Barihunk Étienne Dupuis will reprise the lead role of Young Simon Doucet and hunkentenor Jean-Michel Richer will return as the Count Vallier de Tilly, who is in love with Simon. Tickets are available online.

The opera is based on the play, which tells the story of the confession of an aging prisoner to a bishop. Through the confession we learn that the bishop and the prisoner were part of a gay love triangle and that the bishop was responsible for the death of a young man many years ago. The play was was made into a film called Lilies, which was directed by John Greyson. All of the roles in the opera, including the female roles of La Comtesse Marie-Laure de Tilly and Mademoiselle Lydie-Anne de Rozier, are sung by men as the story is told by actors in an all-male prison. 

Zachary Read (left) and Jean-Michel Richer and Etienne Dupuis (right)

The term Feluette is a Quebec expression with its root in the word fluet, (thin, frail in appearance) which, in common parlance of the time, referred to men who were weak, frail, or effeminate.

Edmonton Opera will present the piece from October 21-27 with barihunk Zachary Read as Young Simon and Jean-Michel Richer returning as the Count Vallier de Tilly.

The Wall opens in Montreal, heads to Cincinnati and possibly the US/Mexican border?

Étienne Dupuis

Julien Bilodeau's new opera The Wall, which is currently playing at Opéra de Montréal through March 24th, will receive it's U.S. premiere at the Cincinnati Opera next season. The work is written for 10 soloists, 48 ​​singers and 70 musicians.

Founding Pink Floyd singer/bassist Roger Waters revisited the band's classic 1979 concept album The Wall for a massive world tour that ran from 2010 to 2013, and he worked with Bilodeau on the opera to mark Montreal's 375th anniversary. Waters, who has frequently infused politics into his concerts, has hinted at performing The Wall on the U.S./Mexican border to protest Trump's plan to build a wall to stem immigration.

The opera stars Québecois barihunk Étienne Dupuis as Pink, the fallen rock star, who is overprotected by his mother after his father dies in war. Pink goes on to a failed marriage, a rock career and a dabbling in totalitarianism as he becomes consumed with guilt.

The Cincinnati Opera's production is slated for July 2018 in celebration of the $135 million restoration of Cincinnati Music Hall.

Étienne Dupuis makes role debut as Orest in Paris Opera's Iphigénie en Tauride

Etienne Dupuis (Photo right © Guergana Damianova)

French Canadian barihunk Étienne Dupuis will open on December 2nd as Oreste in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride at the Palais Garnier. It will be his role debut. The production runs until Christmas Day and tickets are available online.

Director Krzysztof Warlikowski's production returns to the Paris Opera with Véronique Gens as Iphigénie, Stanislas de Barbeyrac as Pylade and Bertrand de Billy conducting.

Gluck's emotionally charged opera retells the Greek tragedy of Iphigénie, condemned to murder her own brother, Oreste, himself a murderer.

Gluck's 1779 opera took his operatic reform to its logical conclusion. The recitatives are shorter and they are récitatif accompagné (i.e. the strings and perhaps other instruments are playing, not just continuo accompaniment). The normal dance movements that one finds in the French tragédie en musique are almost entirely absent. The drama is ultimately based on the play Iphigenia in Tauris by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides which deals with stories concerning the family of Agamemnon in the aftermath of the Trojan War.

A nude extra (left) & Etienne Dupuis and Veronique Gens

Upcoming performances for Dupuis include Albert in Massenet's Werther at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Pink in Another Brick in Bilodeau's The Wall at Opéra de Montréal and Jacques de Lusignan in Halévy's rarity La Reine de Chypre at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées

Étienne Dupuis to star in operatic adaptation of Pink Floyd's The Wall

Étienne Dupuis (Photo on left by Yan Bleney)

Founding Pink Floyd singer/bassist Roger Waters revisited the band's classic 1979 concept album The Wall for a massive world tour that ran from 2010 to 2013, and he's now working on another project based on the record. It's scheduled to premiere in Montreal next March to mark the Canadian city's 375th anniversary, running from March 11-24.

The project brings together Québecois barihunk, Étienne Dupuis, who will play Pink, the fallen rock star; and three exceptional artists: Julien Bilodeau, composer of the new opera vision of the work; Dominic Champagne, director of this monumental 80s music endeavour; and Alain Trudel, conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain. Waters will serve as librettist for the production. The work is written for 10 soloists, 48 ​​singers and 70 musicians.

The story is about the Pink's alienation and isolation in addition to the difficulties facing his entire generation regarding disillusionment. Following the death of Pink's father during World War II, and continuous abuse from his mother and teachers, Pink isolates himself from the rest of the world. The disintegration of his marriage represents the last brick in the metaphorical wall he has been building for himself. If his survival depends on it, will Pink be capable of demolishing his inner wall?

According to Rolling Stone magazine, "The story behind The Wall was partly borne out of an incident that occurred in Montreal's Olympic Stadium in 1977, when a Pink Floyd concert ended with Waters spitting in the face of a fan who attempted to storm the stage. When asked whether The Wall's opera being staged in Montreal brings the album full circle, Waters said, "The Wall is about the journey from the enmity of spitting in someone's face to the position where love becomes more important than that enmity."

 Étienne Dupuis talks about his upcoming opera Les Feluettes:

Dupuis is next scheduled to sing Claudio in Berlioz's Beatrice & Bénédict at La Monnaie Bruxelles, which runs from March 24-April 6. He then heads home to perform Jeune Simon in the premiere of Kevin March's Les Feluettes (Lilies) at Opéra de Montréal from May 21-28.