Laurent Petitgirard (b. 1950)
Joseph Merrick, The Elephant Man
I have always wanted to write an opera with a dual
personality at its centre. Eric Nonn suggested the story
of the Elephant Man to me. This deals not only with the
duality between Merrick’s inner self and his physical
appearance, but also with a theme new to opera as far as
I know, and extremely relevant today, that of exclusion.
This man was misunderstood, humiliated and used by
others. Indeed, being displayed naked without his
consent in front of dozens of doctors and a photographer
at the London Hospital may have been worse than being
one of Tom Norman’s sideshow freaks, when he was at
least fully aware of what he was doing.
In planning this opera, I knew I had to choose a
subject that could touch any one of us, and not fall into
the trap of setting a libretto of obscure meaning. I was
also obsessed by the idea of intelligibility. Eric Nonn
understood this and his libretto is full of lyricism as well
as rhythm. The relationship between words and music
was therefore my prime concern and while the opera is
scored for substantial forces, the orchestra never
prevents the voices from shining through. I planned right
from the start to write the rôle for a woman, because I
particularly like the tonal quality of the contralto voice,
and because I wanted to create a sense of strange
otherness.
Eric Nonn and I based our work on the genuine life
story of Joseph Merrick, which is quite different from
that portrayed in David Lynch’s film, based on the
memoirs of Dr Treves, who had a propensity for
portraying himself in a good light. At first a “freak”
whom we discover through voyeurism, more or less,
Joseph Merrick becomes a mirror in which we perceive
our own fear of that which is different, and then a man
with whom we can all identify as he wonders about
God’s mercy.
We began work on the opera in May 1995 and
finished it in December 1998. It was recorded in Monte
Carlo in May–June 1999 with Nathalie Stutzmann in the
title rôle.
The opera had its first staging in Prague in February
2002, and the production transferred to Nice the
following November. Director Daniel Mesguich’s
incredible staging developed even further the theme of
duality on which the work is based. Jana Sykorova met
the vocal and acting challenges of such an ambiguous
rôle quite superbly.
Laurent Petitgirard
Translated by Susannah Howe
