The child has been punished.
Angry, he attacks the objects around him.
Then the world begins to answer back.
That is the wonderfully simple premise of “L’Enfant et les Sortilèges”, Maurice Ravel's lyric fantasy on a text by Colette. Furniture, animals, plants and imaginary characters stop behaving like silent scenery and acquire voices of their own.
Opéra de Toulon presents the work at the Zénith on Saturday, 3 October, with performances at 2.30 p.m. and 8 p.m. It is specifically presented as a family production and will be sung in French with French surtitles.
The collaboration itself is remarkable. Colette's writing repeatedly explored childhood, animals, nature and physical sensation, while Ravel possessed an extraordinary ability to translate colour and fantasy into orchestral sound.
The result is part opera, part fairy tale and part dream.
Beneath the fantasy sits a simple moral transformation. The child gradually understands that the world around him is not merely there for his use.
Presenting the work at the Zénith also changes the social setting. A family that has never entered a traditional opera house may find the venue less formal and less intimidating.
That matters if cultural institutions genuinely want to create new audiences.
Sometimes the best introduction to opera is not a lecture about its history.
Sometimes it is simply an angry child, a magical garden and a chair that suddenly starts talking.