Le Balcon

Since its creation, Le Balcon has presented works from a repertoire spanning all periods of musical history, with a predilection for works from the 20th and 21st centuries. Here are a few emblematic works:

• Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos
• Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde
• Weill's Threepenny Opera
• Eötvös' Le Balcon
• Messiaen's Saint François d’Assise
• Levinas' La Métamorphose

After a few initial concerts at the Paris Conservatoire, Le Balcon took up residence at the Église Saint-Merry, then at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet. Today, Le Balcon is in residence at the Opéra de Lille (2022-2025) and at Points Communs – Scène nationale de Cergy Pontoise, and has numerous projects with the Philharmonie de Paris, the Festival d'Automne à Paris, the Salzburg Festival, Radio-France and many others. The members of Le Balcon are also ‘associated artists’ of the Singer-Polignac Foundation in Paris.

Since its inception, Le Balcon has placed creativity at the heart of its artistic project, creating nearly fifty works tailored to its characteristics, including the operas Le Premier meurtre by Arthur Lavandier, Like Flesh by Sivan Eldar, Revelo by Marco Suarez Cifuentes, Words and Music by Pedro García Velásquez, and the piece C'est toi qui donnes le son by Augustin Muller. Le Balcon has also created adaptations of works from the repertoire, including Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique (A. Lavandier) and Dracula by Pierre Henry (A. Muller, Othman Louati).

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^{Photo © Julian Roeder}

Le Balcon's sound is designed to create an immersive and radical musical experience. This approach to the ‘total spectacle’ is rooted in our era, where loudspeakers, cinema and the legacy of Wagner and Stockhausen's operas are fully integrated into our listening experience.

For sound engineers, singers and instrumentalists, sound design is an essential artistic and aesthetic challenge. By amplifying, enhancing and spatialising the instrumental gesture, it transforms our perception of sound and music. This interaction becomes a component of the performance itself, giving rise to a specific instrumental technique.

Sound reinforcement opens up an infinite field of interpretation: it reveals whispers, breaths and imperceptible groans. It allows the actor to whisper a poem into the ear of the spectator, like those storytellers on cassette tapes that we listened to as children, with our ears glued to the radio.

Since its inception, Le Balcon has been developing educational initiatives at several levels. Workshops are offered in schools in a variety of formats, ranging from one-off sessions on listening skills in preparation for a concert to longer-term projects designed to introduce students to the creative process. Le Balcon is also committed to helping students from higher education institutions (CNSMDP, Pôle Sup'93) and regional conservatories (CRR de Paris, CRR de Lille) enter the professional world, supervised by soloists from the ensemble in the Licht cycle productions. Le Balcon also supports amateur orchestras and ensembles in these productions and creates outreach events for the general public, such as open rehearsals.

Thus, in 2024-2025, Le Balcon will hold workshops related to the Symphonie fantastique at the Le Nôtre school in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône with Points-Communs, workshops related to Montag aus Licht at the Federico Garcia Lorca secondary school in Saint-Denis with the Festival de Saint-Denis, opening up the creative process of Montag to the public with teams from the Lille Opera, and involving students and amateurs in two operas from the Licht cycle.

In 2018, Le Balcon launched its production of Licht, Karlheinz Stockhausen's seven days of the week, with the idea of presenting one day per year. Eight years later, the cycle is complete. 

The seven operas of Licht, composed between 1977 and 2003, had each been premiered separately, either under the composer's direction or that of his heirs. Before Le Balcon, no company had ever staged the complete Licht.

Le Balcon's curiosity about the Licht cycle dates back to 2010. A long apprenticeship led the members of Le Balcon to the French premiere of Donnerstag aus Licht [Thursday from Light] on November 13, 2018 at the Opéra Comique.

Samstag aus Licht [Saturday from Light] followed in 2019, then Dienstag aus Licht [Tuesday from Light] in 2020, Freitag aus Licht [Friday from Light] in 2022 and Sonntag aus Licht [Sunday from Light] in 2023. A portion of Montag aus Licht [Monday from Light] was shown in early 2025 at the Opéra de Lille, before the complete premiere at the Philharmonie de Paris in November 2025.

The final installment, Mittwoch aus Licht [Wednesday from Light], was presented in September 2026 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in a staging by Susanne Kennedy and under the musical direction of Maxime Pascal. It was the work's first staged production in the German-speaking world.

The Licht project