Seat selection on map [Lille Opera | 12.11.2025 - 20:00 | L'écume des jours] - Opéra de Lille

Froth on the Daydream, which became a cult classic in the 1960s, was adapted for the stage and film several times before Soviet composer Edison Denisov turned it into an opera. Fascinated by French culture and Western European music, Denisov saw in the narrative freedom of L’Écume a perfect opportunity to expand his musical horizon beyond the strict socialist-realist canon in force behind the Iron Curtain. Informed by his own work as a composer, Lebanese-Polish conductor Bassem Akiki is a specialist in contemporary repertoire. Particularly attuned to the fusion of multiple musical languages, he breathes new life into this rarely staged ‘lyrical drama’. Sought-after Franco-Polish stage director Anna Smolar artfully combines poetry, humour and depth in her productions. For her operatic debut, she has chosen to place Chloé at the centre of the plot. While she seems to be little more than a fantasy in the original work, here Chloé becomes a flesh-and-bones narrator. She gives voice to the complexities of terminal illness and makes a case for the freedom to be found in living and dying by your own rules.

Musical director Bassem Akiki
Staging Anna Smolar

approx. 2 hr. 50 min. incl. interval
Sung in French with French and English surtitles