Le Mandarin Merveilleux

- The Miraculous Mandarin -

« In front of a strange house of the slums of a sordid and chaotic city, a prostitute is attracting the attention of passers-by towards three bad boys who rob them of all they have. Two penniless individuals, an old beau and a shy youth are rejected by the thugs. There comes a rich Mandarin, the perfect patsy who is seduced into a lascivious dance, a voluptuous chase. Three times, the crooks attempt to kill the Chinese man by stifling him, stabbing him and strangling him, but even though he is wounded he seems immortal. Filled with pity, the prostitute chases away her peers and abandons herself into the arms of the mandarin who, once his desire is fulfilled, dies as a result of his wounds ».

« This version opens on a prologue, the Portrait, an ‘Ideal’. A man and a woman face each other in the everyday monotony of a failed relationship. The dream analyses and reconstructs the personalities of that man she does not know and pushes a hopeless fantasy to the extreme » Jean-Christophe Maillot

"Jean-Christophe Maillot conceived a powerful work which goes wonderfully well with the music, with its violence and its dramatic tension. The construction is faultless. The interpretation is absolutely remarkable" René Sirvin wrote in Le Figaro.

Choreography: Jean-Christophe Maillot
Music: B. Bartok
Scenographye and costumes: Jean Maillot
Duration: 40 min

Premiere in Monaco on April 19th 1987