Fabrice Luchini Lit Victor Hugo

Opéra Royal Duration: 2h, no interval. I gave a first reading of texts and poems by Victor Hugo in front of an audience in June 2021, in the gardens of the Maison de Chateaubriand. Contrary to André Gide's remark, though he was a shrewd critic, "Who is the greatest French poet?

Victor Hugo, alas", there are for me dazzling moments in Victor Hugo's writing that go beyond the gifted craftsman, and delights of writing that spring from his very prolific output.

Alongside the show on La Fontaine and lockdown that I have been performing since 2022, I wanted to return to this more austere exercise, in order to offer audiences a pure reading of texts, notably the sublime "Booz endormi", which Marcel Proust defined as the most beautiful of the nineteenth century, poems on the death of his daughter, and commentaries by writers such as Charles Baudelaire and Charles Péguy on Victor Hugo.

The reading begins at the time of his exile to Jersey and Guernsey, and recalls in particular the death of his daughter Léopoldine.

I dedicate this reading to the filmmaker Sophie Fillières, who left us in the summer of 2023, and with whom I had the immense pleasure of preparing a film on Victor Hugo. Fabrice Luchini