The masterpiece by Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman makes its way to the stage at La Monnaie this year-end season.

On Christmas Eve in Sweden, the Ekdahl family’s household staff finishes decorating the sumptuous tree. The Ekdahls run the local theater, and Helena’s grandchildren, Fanny and Alexander, also seem destined for the stage. Soon, the living room fills with chatter, the clinking of glasses, and delightful smells. By morning, the whispers of the party are replaced by bawdy giggles, and the drunken guests slip under the sheets (not necessarily with their own partners), while the children dream in front of their magic lantern's show. Nothing suggests that warmth will soon vanish from their lives. But their father, Oscar, suddenly dies, and their mother, Emilie, remarries the authoritarian bishop Edvard Vergérus, who sets out to discipline the children and drive out Alexander’s vivid fantasies, even if it means raising his hand against him…

Fanny och Alexander (1982), Ingmar Bergman’s semi-autobiographical film, makes its opera debut this year in a production by composer Mikael Karlsson and librettist Royce Vavrek. A family saga of this magnitude required large-scale resources. Making her debut at La Monnaie, conductor Ariane Matiakh takes on a score that blends symphonic music with ingenious “surround” electronic sounds. For this occasion, she leads a cast of fourteen soloists, including Thomas Hampson and Anne Sofie von Otter. A connoisseur of Bergman’s work, director Ivo van Hove delves deep into the souls of the characters to create, with set designer Jan Versweyveld, scenes that gradually transform into a frightening hall of mirrors—a fantastical world that challenges harsh reality and might ultimately prevail.