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Mr. Perrichon’s Journey/Le voyage de Monsieur Perrichon

For soloists, choir and orchestra
Based on Eugène Labiche’s play, libretto and music by Laurent Grynszpan
Based on Eugène Labiche’s play, libretto and music by Laurent Grynszpan

The comedy in the form of vaudeville, Mr. Perrichon’s Journey, an extremely successful play since its premiere in 1860, is a play, which to my great surprise, had never been set to music.

Mr. Perrichon’s Journey however is very musical.

 

The frenetic rhythm of the dialogue, the comical situations, misunderstandings, as well as the characters themselves, helped me create a libretto and a musical. Mr. Perrichon’s Journey is written and designed for all ages. College & Lycée Henri IV commissioned the work in June 2011 and resulted in one year of close collaboration and teamwork between the two schools.

 

The premiere of Mr. Perrichon’s Journey took place on June 10, 2013 at the Grand Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne in Paris.

Searching for Stars For soloists, choir, piano, oboe, cello and double bass

Preventing violence, fighting against barbarism ; unmasking it with words and music is what this musical is about. Violence, which very easily causes all forms of barbarism, disintegrates and annihilates what foremost distinguishes one human being from another : his face, his identity. In this work, which alternates songs, music and texts, three children (Fulgence, Anna and Lise) brother and sisters are hiding with their mother in a giant fairy tale book.

 

Fiction ? Reality? This musical is based on a true story, that of a young girl of eleven, who miraculously escaped the Nazis in 1942, thanks to a stranger in a train, who passed her off as his own daughter.

 

The story of one child in danger is the story of all humanity in danger.

The Dream Sculptor For soloists, choir, and piano trio.

The Dream Sculptor or how a grandson recovers the memory of his immigrant grandfather. This is what this musical offers to reveal, through songs, music and texts,

 

Daniel, a child,  gradually "sculpts" the contours of his immigrant grandfather’s faulty memory through a game of unanswered questions,

 

This musical based its lyrics and songs on real events, the youth of my grandfather, whose childhood was fraught with tragic episodes. It is also the story of a exemplary, freedom-loving, young man ,who always strived, while sometimes paying the price, to build his life according to his ideals of justice and fraternity.

 

The Legend of the Tightrope Orchestra For string orchestra, piano and choir

Marguerite and her brother Raphael suffer the tyranny of a king gone mad. Cruel laws are promulgated throughout the kingdom. Raphael thinks it is possible to obey these laws and refuses to leave. Marguerite, meanwhile, refuses any concessions and decides to flee, especially since she has heard that friends from the ocean, will soon land and release the people from the infernal realm of vice to which the tyrant has subjected his kingdom. After finally convincing her brother to join her, Marguerite and Raphaël flee in search of a mysterious orchestra which, according to legend, is suspended on a tightrope between two cliffs near the ocean. On their way, they meet an old woman who promises that their salvation will come from a poem which will "save the world".

 

This musical is written in tribute and gratitude to my father-in-law, Joseph Schlesinger, a D-Day veteran who landed on Utah Beach, and to all the Allies and Resistance who liberated the world from Nazi barbarism.

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