La Belle et La Bête

« Through this shift in perspective, we seek to free Belle from the gaze that has been cast upon her and to restore her power: that of a woman who, after being objectified, becomes a subject.  » Anne-Cécile Vandalem

Born in 1937, Philip Glass is, along with Steve Reich and Terry Riley, one of the precursors of minimalist music, an artistic movement born in the United States in the early sixties. Refusing all forms of aesthetic or stylistic assignment, he explores numerous genres and deplores the distinction between so-called “learned” music and popular music. Yet – and despite all the conventions that define him – Philip Glass has not given up writing opera. Thus, he created Einstein on the Beach at the Avignon Festival in 1976. The result of a close collaboration with director Bob Wilson, this opera breaks with tradition, disrupting the norms of narration and composition. Working on a cycle of three works, the composer chose Jean Cocteau's scenarios as librettos when he began his new trilogy. And on June 4, 1994, at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, the public witnessed an adaptation of La Belle et la Bête in a unique form: an opera-cinema. Nothing remains of Georges Auric's original score. Indeed, Philip Glass decided to synchronize his own composition with the film directed by Jean Cocteau, so that the sung text would be aligned with the actors' lips during the projection! By in turn appropriating this tale, which became a film, then an opera, director Anne-Cécile Vandalem has not failed to re-examine the work in general and the character of Belle in particular. Henceforth, this story is told from the heroine's point of view. Thanks to the camera, on stage, Anne-Cécile Vandalem develops a device offering a critical look at the history of cinema and literature. Without ever obliterating anything from the