Nicolas Simon

"Music is the only area where man realizes the present" Igor Stravinsky

Inspired by Russian folk tales, circus and emerging jazz, The Soldier's Story is a revolutionary work. Composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1917 on a text by Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, it is a work that embraces the fields of music, dance, theater: thus articulate and intermingle musical parts, dialogues, declaimed texts by the reader. We discover an innovative instrumental formation (violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone and percussion) and thus, new spaces are explored through instrumentation, rhythms, melody and voice.

A real relationship between musicians and actors is highlighted. From 7 to 77 years old, from the music lover to the musicologist, it is music for all, playful and funny but also intense, twirling and moving.

The ensemble "Les Siècles" takes hold of L’Histoire du Soldat, offering it in a read and played version, where musicians will play on instruments from the time of creation to rediscover its sounds.

The musicians and the reader will share the stage with a third actor: the illustration. In addition to embodying the characters in the tale (mainly Soldier Joseph and the Devil), the illustration creates a new kind of spectacle: the illustrated concert. It is not an animation: the illustrations evolve and succeed one another. They evoke, suggest and do not say everything, to reveal all the more the expressiveness of the music and the fantasy of the text. They tend to give listening keys, express the richness of the score, and are there to guide the eye on the reader or on this or that part of the instrumental ensemble, which will remain visible during the projection.

As we approach the 100th anniversary of the creation of the book, the version proposed by "Les Siècles" is intended as a tribute to the original form of the work, namely a traveling performance with music, decor, characters, a tale to narrate and show.

Nicolas Simon direction
Arnaud Marzorati narrator
Cécile Pruvot illustrations
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Les Siècles Ensemble
Laetitia Ringeval violin
Fabien Norbert trumpet
Damien Guffroy double bass
Fabien Cyprien trombone
Chrisian Laborie clarinet
Camille Basle percussion
Michael Rolland bassoon