Ravel’s opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges captures an imaginative child’s world in which the creatures and objects around him come to life. Wittily portrayed in Colette’s inventive libretto and by Ravel’s meticulous orchestration, furniture, crockery and animals alike are at first provoked by the child’s appalling behaviour, finally helping him after he bandages the squirrel’s paw he had previously pricked with his pen.

The unforgettably enchanting Mother Goose translates well-known fairy tales into music, including the gently melodic Sleeping Beauty’s Pavane, her conversation with the gruffest of beasts, and a final blessing in The Fairy Garden.

Internationally renowned conductor Leonard Slatkin began his musical studies on the violin and studied conducting with his father, followed by training with Walter Susskind at Aspen and Jean Morel at The Juilliard School. He was named music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon in its 2011–2012 season. His more than one hundred recordings have brought seven Grammy Awards and more than sixty Grammy Award nominations. He has received many other honours, including the 2003 National Medal of Arts, France’s Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton for service to American music.

Artists

Helene Hebrard (L'Enfant), Delphine Galou (Maman, la Libellule, la Tasse chinoise), Julie Pasturaud (La Bergère, la Chatte, l'Ecureuil, un Pâtre), Jean-Paul Fouchecourt (La Théière, le Petit Vieillard, la Rainette), Marc Barrard (L'Horloge comtoise, le Chat), Nicolas Courjal (Le Fauteuil, un Arbre), Ingrid Perruche (La Chauve-souris, la Chouette, une Pastourelle), Annick Massis (Le Feu, la Princesse, le Rossignol)

Choeur Britten, Jeune Choeur symphonique, Maitrise de l’Opera National de Lyon & Orchestre National de Lyon, Leonard Slatkin

December 2015