IN GUILTY NIGHT

The 2026 edition lays the first stone of a new vision.
For these three inaugural evenings, Luc Birraux conceives an installative opera, a hybrid form between lyric concert and music theatre. At its heart, Purcell's micro-oratorio Saul and the Witch of Endor (c. 1692): Saul, having himself banished seers and necromancers, now finds himself confronted with the silence of God. He thus transgresses the very laws he once decreed and turns to those he had cast out. It is the story of a man grappling with silence and, more profoundly, with humanity’s irrepressible longing for transcendence.

As a counterpoint, an original electronic work has been commissioned from Uèle Lamore. The Les Argonautes ensemble, under the direction of Jonas Descotte, performs on period instruments. A speaking choir constituted of adults supported by the EPI completes the cast — reclaiming the original function of the Greek chorus: the collective voice that carries what the protagonists cannot express alone.