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“Cassandre” is not strictly speaking an opera, but a ‘monodrama’ based on a beautiful text written in 1983 by Christa Wolf, a writer from the former GDR whose fate bears a resemblance to that of Shostakovich: independent of the communist regime, and therefore closely monitored by it, yet never wishing to leave her country.

This text is recited by Fanny Ardant whilst the musical discourse of an instrumental ensemble combined with electronic elements envelops, surrounds, supports and even at times masks this spoken voice. It is not, however, a mere melodrama, for the central role of the text is fundamental: everything stems from it and everything revolves around it; it thus occupies the entirety of the work. What is needed, therefore, is not a narrator but a true actress for such a performance.

In Michael Jarrell’s view, it is essential that the text be delivered by a spoken voice, whose delivery—varying in accordance with the musical flow—would preserve the fluid quality and inner emotion of a narrative floating freely ‘in fragments, in leaps, through associations from one thought to another…’.

Thus was born “Cassandre”, a monodrama without singing, a landmark work of contemporary musical theatre.

A mesmerizing concept where voice and music weave a haunting, poetic experience. 

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Performance by: Fanny Ardant

Producer: Les Visiteurs du Soir

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Performance in French, with translation into Romanian and English
Duration: 50min
Date of premiere: 21.04.2026
Original title: Cassandre
France