Opera in two acts
for seven solo singers, chorus and orchestra

Music and libretto Yves Prin
based on the novel Seta by Alessandro Baricco
in the french translation by Françoise Brun

sponsored by the Association Beaumarchais | SACD

Duration : 135 min.

download the cast
download the document Concert June 28th, 2010

> Argument

ervé Joncour seemed to have it all; he was loved and had a successful business as a silkworm retailer. But in 1861, the pebrine plague threatened his industry and the economy of the entire city. Pushed by his mentor, the eccentric and visionary Baldabiou, he begins an endless journey to Japan in order to bring back new precious silkworm. There, in what was then the end of the world, he makes the acquaintance of Hara Kei, a powerful and wiseWarlord. His eyes meet the enigmatic master’s YoungWife. From this point on, his attraction to a woman with whom he never exchanges a word directly, the plot of his incredible return trips between France and Japan is woven. Hervé Joncour, lost between a loving wife and the longing for a love he will never know,witnesses his own rise and fall, and then lets slip away, unable to seize it, the thread of his existence. One will say softly “Stay” the other furtively would slip him a note on which is written “Come back, or I’ll die.” An unexpected letter in beautiful calligraphy will eventually reveal to Hervé Joncour that he had only one true love and that he had lost it twice.