Der Messias

The Mozart version of Handel's most famous oratorio was commissioned by Baron Gottfried van Swieten. An aristocrat and generous patron of the arts, he introduced the young Mozart to the works of Bach and Handel by making available to him his library of scores that he had collected during his many travels. Mozart adapted the libretto in German and reorchestrated a little more than half of the original score, mainly adding extra sections for wind instruments, thus catering to the musical tastes in vogue in Vienna at the time. "He added small illuminations, as if Van Gogh was repainting the Mona Lisa, like a painter who adds colour with different harmonies. It's a different experience, but it's still Handel's Messiah," says Marc Minkowski. As for the vision of the work by the American director Robert Wilson, he explains: “For me, Der Messias is not so much a religious work, but rather a kind of spiritual journey.” A journey in which text and music are just as important to him as space, light, bodies, movement, and it is only in the interplay of all these elements that the strength and the beauty of the aesthetic and emotional effect, so characteristic of the American, blossom. "What can I do to give space to the music? When I close my eyes, I listen with greater attention; hence the question: am I able to create something on stage that, with my eyes open, helps me to listen to the music better?"

PRODUCTION de la Fondation Mozarteum de Salzbourg, en coproduction avec le Festival de Salzbourg, le Théâtre des Champs-Elysées et le Grand Théâtre de Genève
En partenariat avec France Inter
En partenariat avec France Télévisions