A German composer—Aribert Reimann (born in 1936), a creation at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and yet L’intruse is a work composed on a booklet sung in French, even though Reimann simultaneously conceived a version sung in German. But the booklet is based on three short pieces from Maurice Maeterlinck, written in French of course, that are L’Intruse, Intérieur and La mort de Tintagiles, a trilogy gathered under the title L’Invisible. Between restless middle-class realism and fairy-tale mythology, Maeterlinck unveils a disturbing world, filled with death, fate, human helplessness and the vanity of all things. The link between the three pieces, if not textual or dramatic, is made through the use of the same singers, as well still as the appearance in the three volumes of the three servants—three opera countertenors, a most striking sound effect, especially since they represent no less than Death’s messengers. Reimann’s musical discourse, both harsh and deep, moving and rough, takes the listener by the hand from the first minute and only lets it go after ninety minutes full of meaning. You have here the recording made live during its creation in October 1997, with some “surgical taping” recorded afterwards to make up for the moments during which the scenic noise disturbed the listening. If there’s one little drawback, it is that we’ll somewhat regret the too Germanic pronunciation of the French language by most of the soloists… But the album offers the complete French booklet. © SM/Qobuz