L'HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT

For septet & narrator

Scheduled at: Théâtre des 4 Saisons, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Festival Via Aeterna

Ragtime, Paso Doble, Bach-style chorales, klezmer music... This variety of influences serves a Faustian-inspired plot: a soldier sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for a book that can predict the future. A universal tale, inspired by the Russian author Afanasyev, which ends in hell for the soldier.

Julien Masmondet and Les Apaches d'aujourd'hui have decided to pay homage to their predecessors by reviving this play alongside Didier Sandre of the Comédie-Française, in a concert version for a single narrator who embodies the narrator, the soldier, and the devil, accompanied by seven solo musicians. This adaptation by Didier Sandre, whose long-standing familiarity with the work allows him to tighten the drama, giving it a profound unity and bringing out the full musicality of the text.

To introduce The Soldier's Tale , an original creation for percussion and electronics commissioned from Othman Louati, the listener is immediately immersed in the world of rhythm, which, in the form of a march, becomes like a second heartbeat that punctuates all the scenes and accompanies us step by step until the last measure of the work.