L'Histoire du soldat / Into the Little Hill

Armed with nothing but his fiddle, a young soldier heads home on leave. Yet along the way he is beguiled by the Devil's promises, and by the time he arrives, he finds himself forgotten by all. Will fortune restore his happiness?

Stranded in Switzerland during the First World War, Igor Stravinsky turned to a Russian folk tale by Afanassiev, The Deserter and the Devil, to create — with Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, that great chronicler of authenticity — a work whose storytelling and universal music could speak to everyone. "L'Histoire du soldat," declared Francis Poulenc, "is an extraordinary, seminal masterpiece!"

Drawing on the legend of the Pied Piper — who rid a town of its rats before spiriting away its children — George Benjamin and Martin Crimp fashioned their first opera, in which two singers embody the characters with dazzling virtuosity and fierce intensity. For the past twenty years, the British composer and playwright have formed the most celebrated creative partnership in contemporary music theatre. Following the triumphs of Written on Skin and Picture a Day Like This, the Opéra-Comique wished to present Into the Little Hill, a work of haunting poetry and power that has since become a modern classic.

The Opéra-Comique joins forces with the T2G, whose director Daniel Jeanneteau — involved in the world premiere of Into the Little Hill in 2006 — returns to the piece alongside Marie-Christine Soma. To (re)discover the poetry and resonance of these two tales, make your way to Gennevilliers.

L'Histoire du soldat | Melodrama for three narrators and seven instrumentalists. Premiered at the Théâtre municipal de Lausanne on 28 September 1918. The Narrator Christèle Tual, The Soldier Maxime Crescini, The Devil Roland Vouilloz

Into the Little Hill | Chamber opera for two singers and fifteen musicians. Premiered at the Amphithéâtre de l'Opéra Bastille on 22 November 2006. Soprano Jennifer France, Mezzo-soprano Joanne Evans