L’Enfant et la Nuit

Affronter la Nuit (Facing the Night) is probably a child’s first initiatory thrill. The familiar contours of the bedroom are dissipated in the dark; the reassuring figure of the mother disappears behind closed doors and withdraws to the end of the corridor. Space and time fuse, dilate, conducive to metamorphosis. Night becomes the stage on which Day’s positive values are reversed, where the feeling of security gives way to fear of being abandoned and the forces of destruction take shape. Night seems never to end.

Taking its inspiration of the tradition of fairy tales, L’Enfant & la Nuit develops the idea of this spiritual struggle, the ordeal of “nocturnal obscurity” which opens on the theme of the missing mother: she is sick and bedridden on the other end of the corridor. Holed up in their room, the children associate the fear of death with the realm of darkness. Virgil promises his little sister that, after they make it through the night, daylight will return. This heroic quest will confront him in the double negative of the mother, Noctilia, who aspires to eternal beauty. The secret of her appearance results from the child’s pain and tears. Virgil resists the charms of disenchantment (a shady scientist, a dreamcatcher, a tragic clown, all “false father” figures) and fulfils his promise. He triumphs over night by reviving joy thanks to oneirism and laughter.

Operatic tale in seven scenes and four tableaux

Existing arrangements

• original version for soloists, children’s chorus, 2 pianos, 2 percussion instruments
• reduction for voice and piano
• orchestral version