Philip Glass: 'La Belle et la Bête'

A uniquely cinematic blend of live music and film, the opera is synchronized to a screening of director and poet Jean Cocteau’s classic 1946 film version of Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s 18th century fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, replacing the soundtrack with Glass’ original score. For this production, Glass’ entrancing music is performed by a quartet of vocalists backed by three keyboardists and the Bay Area’s phenomenal MANA saxophone quartet.

The libretto, adapted by the composer from the film’s screenplay, is timed precisely and sung to match the characters’ spoken dialog, creating a seamless and modern expression of Villeneuve’s timeless fable of love and loss that gives new dimension to Cocteau’s unforgettable visuals. Called “one of the most magical of all films” by critic Roger Ebert, Cocteau’s film features singular performances by Josette Day as Belle and Jean Marais as the Beast.

With this production Opera Parallèle will become the first company to present performances of all three operas Glass wrote in homage to Cocteau, having performed Orphée in 2011 and Les Enfants Terribles in 2017.