Enough has been said about the supposed elitism of contemporary creation not to highlight the salutary educational initiative of the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing around the stage premiere of Qaraqorum - named after the former cosmopolitan capital of the Mongol empire, today reduced to archaeological remains -, a state commission for François-Bernard Mâche [see our reviews of 10 May 2008 and 21 September 2004], co-produced with the Compagnie La Grande Fugue, the Quatuor Debussy, the Abbaye de Noirlac, the Théâtre de Choisy-le-Roi and the Val-de-Marne département.

Inspired by the travel account of Guillaume de Rubrouck, a thirteenth-century Franciscan monk and local figure from Flanders who was close to Saint Louis and sent to Mongolia for evangelising purposes, the work recounts the discovery of different civilisations and religions that ignorance confused with barbarism. It is astonishingly relevant today. The libretto, written by the composer himself, is the opposite of a facile edification, retracing an initiatory journey, even in its disappointment at not being able to embrace and dominate the diversity of the world and its customs. For an age often tempted by the intoxication of intolerant absolutes, the piece offers a propaedeutic that subtly blends knowledge and introspective wisdom.

Entrusted to the Quatuor Debussy, who not only wield the bow but also invest themselves physically in Alain Patiès' staging, the score is presented as a panorama of sound in tune with the narrative album, without seeking the artifice of a dramatic architecture other than the linearity of the journey. Punctuated by electroacoustic sequences prepared by Mâche, the apparent simplicity of the rather stripped-down string section goes so far as to embrace the meanders of rare or forgotten languages, collated and recorded - more for their evocative virtues than their topographical or historical truth - like a linguistic filter for the exoticisms traversed: writing and almost improvisatory reactivity combine in a demanding performance lasting almost an hour and a half.

Economical, mobile and adaptable, the production is supported by the poetry of videos directed by Louise Bezombes, projected onto the set design by Laure Satgé and Valentine de Garidel: the evanescent fluidity of the Indian ink drawings plunges the spectator into an imaginary world that is as effective as it is uncluttered, the milestones of a long expedition that is tinged with its successive and memorable colours with a sense of suggestiveness that refuses, like the costumes by Gabrielle Tromelin, to lock itself into sterile documentary realism.

The three soloists - a tenor and two baritones, Christophe Crapez, Xavier Legasa and Paul-Alexandre Dubois respectively - are to be commended for their mastery of demanding declamation, sometimes bordering on the lyrical. Touring Choisy-le-Roi in May, Ardèche in July and Cergy-Pontoise at the end of the year, François-Bernard Mâche and Alain Patiès's iconoclastic production aptly belies the financial obesity to which musical theatre and opera are generally confined. In more ways than one, it could serve as an inspiration to the heads of the French education system.

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