When we take on a work like 
Orpheus and Eurydice, I try to
take into account its context:
how this work was created,
how it as been transmitted.
I was inspired by everything 
that exists around the opera
in particular the 19th century
when Berlioz takes it on.
This was my starting point.
There are parallels here:
Berlioz adapted the opera with idea of
transform it a little
just as Gluck had wanted to transform opera
to make a kind of opera revolution.
So we are in a kind of transition
a transition to Gluck
and another transition
in the 19th century.
The context of performance practice at the time,
and the scientific context.
I always approach directing an opera
as the art of presenting space
with all the physical constrains that this entails.
So I tried to find a stage design
that fits well with the opera.
I thought a lot about
what is the basis of the myth?
what makes it so long lasting?
Surely it the fact that
Orpheus turns around and if Orpheus turns around
then the stage space should also turn around.
So I found a staging device
that turn the space around.
I chose an optical device
since the turning happen through a look
I naturally thought about the Pepper’s Ghost
a theatrical illusion trick
with a material that behaves like glass
which has a reflection
and which allows one to turn around
the axes,
the horizontal axis
become vertical
- we turn the space around concretely
This Pepper’s Ghost enable me not only
turn the space around
but also to create
a separation between the world of the living
and the world of the dead.
This is really the main subject
central to the myth
and in Gluck opera
and the surface was bare,
it’s as if the world of death was just same
A true mirror of the real world
but without any incarnation
there are no more bodies.
So which reflection was it important to show?
I chose to focus on
representations - this is the art of representation
Orpheus and Eurydice is a representation
I work …
I sought out a painting by
Jean-Baptiste Corot
‘Orphée bringing Eurydice to the Underworld’
which also dates from 1861
and I think that Corot painted the myth
but above all he painted
Berlioz’s opera.
I also tried to give the human form
the body a central place in this production
I turned to dance and the circus
There are artists with whom I am used to working
I like working with dance
I really like the arts that use the body.
In physical theatre
there is the physicality of the body.
The action of ‘doing things’ and
this is another reason why I like
opera a lot - the physicality of singing
is obvious - singing is an art of the body.
So I have this chorus which is
there from the beginning to the end
which we will try to bring back
to which we give an existence
and not just in the sung parts.
We had to give the chorus as body
it is already a mass, already a presence
but I wanted to add to this chorus
with dancers.
There is no single way to stage opera.
Opera is never a given at the outset.
It is a form that grows from
the experience on the stage
and we hope that it gives rise
to something unexpected.
So I hope the experience of viewer
looks like this experience of the creation;
To discover this myth
this story
that we had not yet experience.
