Director

In Jean Cocteau's novel, the "enfant terribles" are named Paul and Élisabeth. They are brother and sister, teenagers and orphans. Alone in a society they reject, they transform their room into an imaginary kingdom, a sanctuary of a symbiotic relationship where love borders on obsession and conceals a latent violence. When two friends, Gérard and then Agathe, intrude upon their private world, the threat of losing Paul draws Élisabeth into a vicious cycle of dangerous games, jealousy, and manipulation. In this short novel published in 1929, the author illuminates the fragility of adolescence, the impossibility of suspending time, and the disastrous consequences of an all-consuming passion.

The Terrible Children

Lille Opera

Music theater with the song cycle by Franz Schubert and Wilhelm Müller / Version for choir, baritone and two accordions by Gregor Meyer / With texts by Lena Reissner
I came as a stranger, and I leave as a stranger. These words not only open what is perhaps the most famous song cycle in music history, they hit the nail on the head when it comes to the Romantic attitude to life. Motifs such as hiking, loneliness, love's exuberance and heartache, inner restlessness, even the German forest: all of this was very well received after its publication in a country that was searching for its own identity.

Director

Matthias Piro

Events

Past events

20 - 26 Mar, 2026

The Terrible Children · Opéra de Lille

1 - 9 Mar, 2025

The Winter Journey · Volkstheater Rostock

About

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