Commission to Martin Matalon

Supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Martin Matalon is composing Monsieur Vénus, a new monodrama for soprano, accordion, and electronics.

The work is based on the late 19th-century novel by Rachilde (the pseudonym of Marguerite Eymery). Monsieur Vénus tells the story of Raoule de Vénérande, an aristocrat and femme fatale, and Jacques Silvert, a florist. They engage in an unequal relationship in which Raoule ultimately reverses their respective gender and sexual roles. Driven by her pursuit of aesthetic experience, Raoule loses her social position and destroys the androgynous, monstrous being she has constructed with Jacques. After his destruction, Jacques is transformed into an anatomically perfect wax figure and becomes an object of Raoule’s possession.

The novel confronts forbidden forms of sexuality and destabilizes socially imposed gender constructs through role reversal and ambiguity. Matalon’s Monsieur Vénus is conceived as a sung monodrama that exposes Raoule’s desire to transform both her own identity and that of her subject, prey, and victim. The project explores the inner logic of Rachilde’s text, focusing on the deconstruction of fixed identities through gender inversion and instability.

Further Information:
centrehenripousseur.be

Dates

April 30, May 2, & May 3, 2026
Greek National Opera, Athens