Berlin-based Canadian artists, soprano/composer Rachel Fenlon and mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel have created a unique take on Arnold Schoenberg seen through the filter of Berlin’s electrifying underground. Pierrot entre 3 lunes is their bold new production of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, incorporating original electro-pop compositions, and contemporary dance. It premieres at Festival d’Opéra de Québec for two performances on July 31 and August 2.
Mireille Lebel and Rachel Fenlon. Photo: Marc Lebel
Under their joint artistic collective Crown The Muse, Fenlon and Lebel began work in 2022 to create and produce a bold, genre-defying 60-minute opera/dance production built around Schoenberg’s iconic Pierrot Lunaire. Their all-new creation presents the original work in its entirety, with the addition of electro-pop compositions by Fenlon. For these additions, the composer selected poems from Albert Giraud’s collection Pierrot lunaire: Rondels bergamasques which were not set by Schoenberg in his own Pierrot lunaire. New electronic compositions echo Schoenberg’s poetic and musical themes.
Drawing inspiration from the cinematic inventiveness of films like Everything Everywhere All at Once and the pulsating energy of Berlin’s electronic music scene, Pierrot entre 3 lunes aims to bridge classical and contemporary, tradition and innovation.
Will Jessup and Mireille Lebel in the first Pierrot workshop. Photo: Marc Lebel
Directed by Ne.Sans Opera and Dance Artistic Director Idan Cohen, Pierrot entre 3 lunes fuses contemporary dance and opera through movement and theatricality to explore a world of shifting identities. Cohen sees the clown as a queer entity who becomes a canvas for shifts in identity and social class, from cleaning lady to queen to clown. The show’s backdrop depicts the dichotomies between masculine and feminine, poverty and prosperity, otherness and belonging.
Lebel and Fenlon share the role of Pierrot, joined by dancer Will Jessup. Conductor Karl Hirzer will lead four instrumentalists as well as playing the piano and synth.
Pierrot entre 3 lunes premieres at Festival d’opéra de Québec with two performances on July 31st and August 2 at Theatre Periscope
