Cassandre

The idea of a Flemish-style organ for the church of Beurnevésin, which had never had a pipe organ, very quickly became obvious to me. Indeed, given the richness of the region’s organological heritage and the desire to further enrich it, the choice of this aesthetic, which is still unrepresented (and in fact rarely present outside Flanders), was fully justified. Moreover, in 2008 I had already reconstructed a Flemish instrument for the church of Cossonay (Switzerland), and this small organ had given me the aspiration to build a larger instrument.

It's stretching the conventional, technical definition of the term to call Swiss composer Michael Jarrell's spoken monodrama Cassandre an opera, but that's the composer's description of it, and as such, it ought to be respected. It does consist of a musical narrative accompanying a verbal narrative, so even though it doesn't involve singing, it comes closer to standard opera than some pieces that are so designated.

Dans un monde dominé par les femmes, la fille d'une puissante s'efforce de sauver un homme promis à l'esclavage afin de renverser le système. …