"This show is first of all a complete work because it includes theater, music (including lyrical art), poetry, painting, digital arts and video, all at the same time... It is an intelligent show that respects and introduces the spectator to a great journey in classical music - from the 17th century to the present day or almost - and which is of incredible human depth since it talks about life, love, tenderness , death, artistic creation… without ever losing the audience!" Michel Bonnet, Vivre à Chalons
“Art is the most beautiful deception of all. Let us not disillusion anyone by bringing too much reality into the dream..." Claude Debussy, Monsieur Croche, antidilettante
Mr. Croche is the “most delicate of men”, says its creator Claude Debussy, iconoclastic and unclassifiable French artist.
Under a pseudonym, or his real name, his witty and humorous musical reviews shook all of musical Paris in the 1900s. The fictional character had a brief but intense life, his remarks remained acute and had a modernity that transcended time. With an accuracy and a spirit that hit home, he gave us his "sincere and loyally felt impressions", fearlessly scratching the greats, like Wagner, while constantly missing the old ones: Bach, Rameau, Couperin... in search of a lost stylistic ideal.
The magic of digital arts and the knowledge of historical instruments possessed by the musicians of Les Nouveaux Caractères brings the tastes and works of the famous composer to life and invites the young and the old to an initiatory journey through the history of the arts, from the 17th to the 20th century.
This original creation is also the touching portrait of a relationship between a father (Debussy) and his daughter (Chouchou), who died a year after him, to whom he dedicated these little musical sweets that are the Children's Corner. The evoked scores of Ravel, Mozart or De Falla, the paintings of Vermeer, Turner and Van Gogh, or the moving poem “Demain dès l’aube” by Victor Hugo, give this show a charm and an enchantment that lasts when the silence regains its rights.
