World Premiere: Claude – Opéra de Lyon

Claude – Opera in one act (World Premiere) 

Music by Thierry Escaich 

Libretto by Robert Badinter 

The man turned assassin under certain circumstances, 

if differently influenced would have served his country well.

The plot for this new opera is taken from Victor Hugo’s short story Claude Gueux (1834), which was based on actual events. The story expresses Hugo's early thoughts on social injustice. Thirty years later he fleshed out this theme in his novel Les Misérables, and Jean Valjean can be seen as a latter day Claude. While Les Miserables offers a sense of redemption, the opera Claude basically just lays out the events. Only Hugo’s commentary, sung as a choral backdrop throughout the opera, offers any moral. It’s a harsh and brittle opera, and well worth seeing.

The recording that’s available at arte.tv is sung in French and has French subtitles. Because my French skills are slightly below survivor level, I decided to read (a so-so translation of) the original story first. It helped a lot, as some of the dialog in the opera is taken directly from the book. There are some minor differences. In Hugo’s version, Claude has stolen bread to feed his family. In the opera, he is a weaver who is put out of work by automated looms and ends up being arrested at the barricades. 

Look at Claude Gueux. An intelligent and most noble-hearted man, 

placed in the midst of evil surroundings, he turned thief.

Director Olivier Py uses machinery, in particular a wheel, and constant, relentless motion as the primary image of inhumanity here.  The set and the cast are in constant motion, as is the music. While the action is realistic, it’s frequently accompanied by stylized activities. Also the main unit of the set, representing the prison, and containing nine cells on one side, is always moved by the prisoners. In this world the machines are more important than people. 

Claude is good and sensitive man, and is respected by the other prisoners, who rally around him. The Prison Director resents Claude as a man and for his status among the others, and singles him out for verbal, emotional, and physical abuse.