- What voice is more symbolic of the opera ?
- Why do we say a tenor for a famous lawyer ?
Because the tenor is the hero the most generous, the bravest !
Because he represents the just and pure man.
Thierry Dran, Orphée aux enfers, Aristée/Pluton, J. Offenbach, Palais Garnier, Paris, 1987
Well ! We also say that he is not very smart but it let us not shout it too hardly !
My grandfather has me learnt when I was a child that we had an ancestor who fought under the command of the musketeer knight of d'Artagnan. He took me to visit the castle which sheltered our ancestors to Pondeau at the heart of the Ariège.
Castle of Pondeau, France
And showed me a parchment signed by the count d'Artagnan officer under king Louis XIV making of our ancestor a marquess owner of this castle.
It fascinated the little boy whom I was and tempted me to be closer to these roots !
Here are two observations which have no relationship between them but which gave me an idea !
Make of these heroes of the opera that are the tenors, the travelers in the heart of our history to transport them alternately in Paris, Pondeau and Aigues-Mortes to contribut of our common history and celebrate the operatic repertory in places where so what the emotions have of more intense.
Paris, salle Gaveau where all that matters of musical celebrities shone.
Salle Gaveau, Paris
The castle of Pondeau which saw our good king Henri the fourth staying and which gets ready to receive the descendant of a musketeer of king in the person of Julien Dran de Pondeau, one of the tenors of our expedition.
Castle of Pondeau
I've got since a few years an impatience : take out the opera of his usual family which makes of him a chapel for specialists.
I noticed that the way we speak about it and of which he is used are also important for his creative future as the big works which led to his creation. The history, the family stories, the anecdotes, the events, the philosophy of lives of the men and the women of today are for me the heart of the opera.
"To refresh" our relation to the voice by connecting her with the history to see better than our past or present intimate or common stories are not bound to the time but to the will to communicate our feelings.
How ?
An operatic crusade taken by an orchestra, four tenors, and an essential character, a soul of any society, mother, mistress, muse, common theme of this crusade, reason for being of every man on earth, a woman ! Soprano young woman who will be the symbol living on the representation of love through the works and binding our young tenors in their fate.
This crusade will begin December 10th, 2019 in the evening.
A day of the celebration of human rights since 1950, I proposed to the manager in charge of the salle Gaveau who one accepted by it to be a co-producer.
Who says lyric, said orchestra, 25 musicians will accompany these young soloists in their repertory of respective opera (romantic, beautiful cantiste and classic).
This orchestra will consist for the opportunity will adapt itself to these composers' diverse genres by means of a transcription of every airs : Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Bellini, Ponchielli, Massenet, Bizet...
Julien Dran de Pondeau, La fille du régiment, Montpellier, juillet 2018
This first fund-raising will serve to finance a first concert salle Gaveau.
Step 1 : 5000 € - transcription of the scores + communication, publicity, media
The scores are written for a precise formation by the composer.
The classic orchestra, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven are constituted on average by forty instruments.
For the romanticism we count the double, with the addition of percussions, brass instruments or other one. With an orchestra compound of 24 musicians to accompany our 5 tenors.
The transcriber rewrites the original scores to adapt them to a smaller orchestra, while keeping colors, tones and genius of the composer.
Step 2 : 12 500 - 3 rehearsals for orchestra
So that this concert takes place in the best conditions, so that it is up to our expectations, the orchestra has to have the means to repeat several time.
For a concert of such magnitude, we plan 8 services of rehearsals, with a made up orchestra of :
6 violins, 3 violas, 2 cellos, 1 contrabass, 1 harp (+ celtic), 1 guitar (+ oud), 2 percussions (+ vibraphone + marimba), 1 flute (+ piccolo), 1 oboe (+ cor anglais), 1 clarinet (+ bass), 1 bassoon (+ contrabassoon), 1 horn (+ tubene), 1 trumpet (+ cornet), 1 trombone, 1 saxophone.
Step 3 : 20 000 € - 3 rehearsals for orchestra and soloists
Step 4 : 30 000 € - final concert with the pay of the artists and the orchestra
If thanks to your support we manage the overtake our final goal, we can finance again 2 rehearsals for orchestra to the tune of : 6 000 €
and sound captation of the concert : 3 000 €
Son and father of opera singers, alumnus of the national school of singing of the Paris opera. I made tenor's national and international career, registered some roles with big companies (ERATO, EMI) of recording and frequented some of the famous and most prestigious opera stages in the world.
CD of Fortunio by A. Messager, with Thierry Dran in the title role.
Since the childhood, maintained by a maternal grandfather genealogist of the family, the taste of the history and a curiosity for the transgenerational phenomenon.
My readings were almost turned towards the research for the human truth which crosses the time, persuaded that the religion was not enough to explain or to justify the faith.
Opera, is for me one of the most powerful vectors of understanding for all that the emotion transports of mystery attached to the myths, the stories and the legends.
Thierry Dran, L’italienne à Alger, 1987
That is why, since a few years, same time as my vocal activities, I organize operatic events around this double way ; the vocal art and an approach more lived on our existential concerns.
Carmina Burana (committee of wines of Bordeaux in 1993)
5000 people in the public, 150 musicians and 350 chorus-singers of 5 countries of the European economic community of 1993 in the big hall of the internationalfair of wines of Bordeaux.
Or another Traviata (Espace Cardin in Paris, 2013)
During whom I tried to make the enlightened amateurism join himself and the available professionalism. And among which my mother Madam Monique de Pondeau (Depuis le jour, G. Charpentier), was a rare interpreter in the opera of Paris in the seventies.
Two examples among others of the relationship which I wish to highlight ; the human being and his history, his drives of life and death through the music of opera, his faith in the truth of his feelings and can be modestly, say to himself what leads us is can be not that the fruit of our genetic assembly and our experience ?
Laurent Béteille, former senator and former mayer
Association "Les amis du domaine de Pondeau"
Salle Gaveau
Julien Dran de Pondeau :
https://www.operadeparis.fr/ar...
https://opera-magazine.com/201...
http://www.gbopera.it/2017/05/...
MANY THANK'S FOR YOUR SUPPORT !!
Contact : [email protected]
Facebook : https://m.facebook.com/La-croi...
Website : http://thierry.dran.free.fr/
