CHARACTERS

The cast for the demo scenes consists of eleven characters. A ca. twenty person cast with male chorus is expected as the opera develops.

HÉLÈNE LOPUCHINE (née Milescu) – Lyric Soprano
French, mid 30s. Beautiful, glamorous, world-renowned soprano based in Paris. Estranged wife of Stepan Lopuchine. For the last five years, her fame has grown tremendously. She performs in the world’s best opera houses, with a repertoire of bel canto, the Romantics, and the occasional Baroque work. (She’s more Mozart and Rossini than Wagner.) Stylish and beloved, she can also be imperious and chilly. She wants to control her own past, which is full of secrets and shame. Hélène has difficulty with the idea of family and motherhood. She didn’t come from wealth; she had to work her way up from poor origins. She has a dry, sharp sense of humor. Stoic loneliness has become a way of life, what with traveling and high-profile engagements at famed opera houses.

STEPAN LOPUCHINE – Dramatic Baritone
Russian, late 30s. Stepan is a truck driver based in Marseilles. When not on the road driving long hours throughout the French countryside, he dwells in a small, shabby room in Madame Pascoli’s boarding house by the docks—which also serves as a bar for sailors and locals. Stepan’s life is part proletarian, part bohemian. He’s jolly but moody, apt to talk about axles and carburetors as well as philosophy. There’s a philistine streak in him: He never understood or cared about Hélène’s dedication to opera. He loves nature. Born into the Russian aristocracy, he was forced to leave the Soviet Union as a young man. He married Hélène, they had Génie, and then Stepan became estranged from Hélène when Génie was about three years old. He’s got a dark sense of humor and can act the fool, but can be dangerous when angered.

EUGÉNIE LOPUCHINE (Génie) – Child Soprano
Age 8. Daughter of Hélène and Stepan. Génie is developmentally challenged, to the point where she cannot communicate or take care of herself. At first, she cannot speak—beyond random vocalizations—and her responses to outside stimuli are impulsive, strange, and occasionally violent. She is a basically sweet girl but living in a Swiss mental hospital since the age of three has left her dissociated and alienated. No one tried to teach her anything or reach her emotionally. So it is unclear whether she is severely mentally challenged or if it is a combination of mild disability worsened by autism, or emotional damage brought about by years of institutional life.

IGRANES – Lyric Baritone (A – high F)
French, mid 30s. Hélène’s manager, personal assistant and biggest fan. An elegant, urbane, fussy fellow. He loves the opera and adores his client. Conservative in his music tastes and dismissive of anything too modern. He is aware of Stepan in Hélène’s past but encourages her to avoid him. Could be he has romantic feelings for Hélène.

MISS PAUMELLE – Lyric Mezzo-Soprano (B-flat – G)
Swiss, late 20s. A rehabilitation therapist in a state-of-the-art Swiss mental institution, Hospice Saint-Etienne. She is efficient, cheerful and proud of her work. Her demeanor is that of a proper schoolteacher who can turn disciplinarian fairly quickly. A pretty woman who doesn’t exactly overflow with maternal warmth, but should radiate confidence.

DR. CHITRY – Lyric Tenor (D-flat – high A-flat)
Swiss, late 30/early 40s. Doctor in Swiss mental institution. Suave, poised, the public face of the hospital. He deals with distraught parents of patients all the time. Quite proud of the good work he and the other doctors at the hospital have done with difficult cases.

DR. KRETSCHMANN – Bass-Baritone (F – high D-flat)
German, 40s/50s. Starchy, pompous but passionately serious neurosurgeon. Innovator of a controversial new surgical procedure for the developmentally disabled. Authoritative but not subtle. Might have a God complex, but he would never admit it.

HERBIN – Bass-Baritone
French, 50s. A rumpled, disgruntled, foul-mouthed truck dispatcher. He is Stepan’s boss at Vitesse, a truck company. Loves a dirty joke and cheerfully insults his drivers, who come from the four corners of the earth. A bit unsanitary looking as well.

MADAME PASCOLI – Lyric Mezzo-Soprano
Italian-French, 30s. She runs a boarding house near the docks of Marseilles. The ground floor doubles as a bar. Pascoli is a loud, blowsy and bawdy. Former madam at a bordello, she’s given up that life and just wants a quiet existence. But since she runs a bar and has a nasty temper, quiet seldom ensues at her place. Stepan lives in a small room on the second floor. Pascoli might fancy Stepan.

CHRISTOPHE, HOTEL MANAGER – Lyric Tenor (C – high A)
Age: 20s. Maurice works at Hotel Deux Janvier, a fancy seaside hotel in Cannes. Not as snooty as Igranes, but he tries to be smooth. When we see him, he is rather flustered, since just moments ago, Stepan parked his filthy truck outside the hotel and made off with Hélène.

DOCTOR BATEL – Tenor
French-Indian, 30s. A kindly Marseillaise physician who pays a house call on Génie when she’s sick and Hélène is looking after her. Despite the wide variety of tramps and lowlifes he usually treats, he’s a saintly if humorous doctor.

RENE – Tenor (Major sixth: second space C-sharp – A-sharp)
Swiss, late teens. Mentally disabled youth who has undergone a radical operation. Docile but distracted. Stutters. Ingratiating with his supervisors. Prone to flirting with women.

GEORGES– Tenor or Baritone
Swiss, 20s. Mentally disabled youth who has undergone a radical operation. A bit fidgety but he tries to control it.

HANS – Tenor or Baritone
Swiss, 20s. Mentally disabled youth who has undergone a radical operation. Most distant of all, with impaired motor functions. Withdrawn.