The Savages

"I alone hold the key to this savage parade" - Les Illuminations, Arthur Rimbaud

A world shaped by division and violence, by mysticism and constant change. A world that feels both overwhelming and strangely familiar. What if opera could hold up a mirror to it?

Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations does exactly that.

Inspired by the surreal poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, Les Illuminations is a work of raw intensity and startling beauty. Britten transforms Rimbaud’s wild  verses into music that is ecstatic, unsettling, and deeply human. At its heart, the cycle is a portrait of society itself - the luminous and the dangerous, the sacred and the savage. It reminds us that while the world may evolve, the impulses that shape civilisation remain hauntingly unchanged.

This ritual-like, electrifying sound world finds an unexpected and thrilling counterpart in the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau. In true Voxalis style, opera and art song collide in a recital that reimagines centuries of music as part of the same conversation. Rameau’s Les Indes galantes, including the famous “Forêts paisibles” sung by The Savages, explores similar themes across vignettes of different civilisations, connecting beautifully alongside Britten’s work. 

Program

• Britten - Les Illuminations 

• Rameau - Chorus excerpts from Les Indes Galantes, Castor et Pollux

• Debussy - Excerpt from Trois Chanson de Bilitis