Cantat, who was convicted of killing his girlfriend, actress Marie Trintignant, in 2003 during a violent domestic dispute, wrote the music for the production and is performing a certain number of dates. The rest will be performed by singer Igor Quezeda. Mouawad justified the inclusion of Cantat by saying, "Electra, Antigone and The Women of Trachis are plays about justice and revenge . . . Cantat's presence at the edge of the action will make those themes more powerful."
Helping to bring this unusual creation to life from a sonic point of view are two Innovason digital mixing consoles supplied by Breton rental company Koroll Sonorisation; an Eclipse at FoH and an Sy80 on monitors, both on an EtherSound digital network.
At the helm of the Eclipse is sound engineer Olivier Renet. "I was already familiar with Innovason consoles which are renowned for the quality of their mic preamps and processing and which ultimately tipped the balance when it came to specifying consoles for the tour," explained Renet. "This is an unusual show for many reasons, not least in terms of its conception - it is primarily a piece of theatre but in which music plays a very important and varied role, from the hardest of hard rock to the gentlest of ballads.
"Furthermore, with the types of venues we are playing (often national theatres) with very precise acoustics and extremely attentive audiences, we knew that dynamics and timbre would be very important. The music plays a hugely important part in this production - the ancient chorus is an integral part of Tragedy genre, offering opinion, providing elements of narrative, commenting on the course of events - as a result, the intelligibility of the text, even in a rock context, is primordial."
Des Femmes is currently playing at the Amandiers theatre in Nanterre, Paris before heading off to Belgium, Canada and La Reunion in the New Year. The show has already played in Greece at the ancient Herodes Atticus amphitheatre and at the internationally renowned Avignon Festival amongst other venues.
(Jim Evans)
