Summary
A musical comedy – with room service and a feminist twist
Morgane Billet – Soprano
Agathe Trébucq – Soprano
Flore Fruchart – Mezzo-soprano
Éléonore Sandron – Piano
Yves Coudray – Text, stage direction and choreography
Angélique Bourcet – Lighting design
Running time: 1 hr 20 min
Performed at the Avignon Festival Off in 2019, 2023 and 2026
1955. The Salon des Arts ménagers – the great home appliance fair – opens its doors.
Four employees of the Hôtel moderne share their lives, their hopes and their struggles with us. Four points of view – sometimes in unison, sometimes at odds. Four ways of being women, and free.
A committed message beautifully served by a repertoire that is anything but trivial, with the Quatuor Ariane’s trademark humour!
Director’s note
With this show, the Quatuor Ariane takes ownership of the operetta repertoire of the first half of the 20th century, to reach connoisseurs and newcomers alike: talking about serious subjects with a light touch, rearranging the works for the ensemble and looking at them through a contemporary lens.
As an all-female ensemble, the four performers question the place of women today by drawing on the place of women in 1950s society. The songs of Yvain, Christiné, Gabaroche and Messager delighted them with the strength they gave women – above all their refusal to let the world go round without playing an active part in it.
A specialist in this repertoire, Yves Coudray wrote the text and created the staging and choreography.
The Quatuor Ariane
Born in 2014 from the joyful meeting of four women with contrasting voices and personalities, the Quatuor Ariane shares the operatic repertoire with connoisseurs and newcomers alike, in unusual venues and in new forms.
Repertoire
Jacques Offenbach (La Périchole, La Vie parisienne), André Messager (L’Amour masqué), Maurice Yvain (Pas sur la bouche, Ta bouche), Henri Christiné (Phi-Phi), Arthur Honegger (Les Aventures du roi Pausole), Reynaldo Hahn (Ô mon bel inconnu), Gaston Gabaroche, Marcel Delannoy…
Press
“Wholehearted, infectious good humour” – L’Humanité
“A vintage tune brought up to date for the #MeToo era” – La Provence
