Brightly painted wooden marionettes, live actors dressed as peasants, and five musicians playing period instruments (including one on a hurdy-gurdy!) come together on one stage to engage in one of humanity’s favorite pastimes: making fun of itself! Experience Lully’s Atys like you’ve never seen it before in this piece of delightful satire, 18th-century style!

In the ethereal afterlife, there is no time or space. The shades, freed from their earthly cares, celebrate the greatness of the Goddess of Truth. Shrouded in eternal glory, she sits triumphant, flanked by Beauty and Goodness, while at her feet lies Suffering in her mantle of blood. In the midst of this chorus of praise, a discordant lament rises: “To live! Who will give me back the thrill of life?” The voice belongs to Guercœur, who died in the prime of life after falling in love with Giselle and freeing his people from a tyrant, assisted by his friend Heurtal. Unable to rest, Guercœur begs to return to his fleshly form. Truth warns him: two years have already passed on Earth where nothing lasts forever. His fall from paradise could be brutal…

Few operas have enjoyed such an enviable fate as Gounod's Faust. Well received at its premiere, followed by international success, which still makes it the most performed French opera in the world today, just behind Carmen. But should we take this Faust literally? Or should we see it, in the twist of the fable, as a celebration of pleasures? The audience can enjoy all the excesses, intoxicated by the music... without risking damnation. In Opéra de Lille’s production, this contradiction does not escape astute analysis of director Denis Podalydès. Podalydès and his distinguished team tackles Goethe's tragic hero, using Jules Barbier's spoken dialogues, which were part of the work when it was first performed in 1859, to bring out all its ambiguities.

Guercœur, the knight and a freedom fighter, meets with an early death and ends up in heaven. But his soul is unable to rest and begs to be returned to earth. At the Opéra national du Rhin, Stéphane Degout plays the title role under the direction of Ingo Metzmacher, while Christof Loy’s staging explores the boundaries between the two worlds.