Like Flesh

After following her lumberjack husband into the forest, a woman abandons herself to a monotonous life, witnessing the destruction of nature. A budding passion with a student turns her life upside down: her body transforms into a tree. Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Like flesh, with libretto by Cordelia Lynn and music by Sivan Eldar, explores the ecological crisis and our conflicting relationship with nature. Using IRCAM technology, the composer deploys an enveloping forest of sound, via some sixty loudspeakers integrated into the auditorium, in response to Maxime Pascal conducting Le Balcon.

This work marks the emergence of a new generation of committed opera artists, reinventing opera as a sensory and political experience. Silvia Costa, already acclaimed for her staging of Boesmans’ Julie, here transforms the stage into a universe in mutation, amplified by Francesco D’Abbraccio’s videos. Winner of the FEDORA prize, Like Flesh was performed for the first time in Lille in 2022, and hailed as a highlight of the lyrical revival.

Like Flesh, recorded live at the Opéra de Lille by the b-records label, will be released as a book-disc on July 4, 2025. This book-album is co-produced by the Villa Medici.