Gilles Rico

With Maria Republica, François Paris fulfills a quarter-century-old dream of writing an opera. It was in 1991, while still a student at the Paris Conservatory, that the composer met Augustin Gómez-Arcos and told him of his intention to write an opera based on his novel. The writer died in 1998, but thanks to the bold and ambitious artistic policy pursued by Jean-Paul Davois at the head of Angers Nantes Opéra, the project is now coming to fruition on stage at the Théâtre Graslin in Nantes.

"The White Horse Inn" is the last Berlin operetta of the interwar period. It is a hybrd work that mixes Tyrolean folklore, Viennese operetta, Berlin cabaret tunes and dance hall numbers. The arrival of eccentric clients from the south of France breaks the serenity of a charming establishment in the Austrian Alps, and the once civilised party becomes a free-for-all.