LOperaSauvageTitleIntroduction

"L'Opéra Sauvage" is a documentary series by French director Frédéric Rossif, exploring the relation between human culture, music and animals from all over the world. The television series, for which Vangelis composed original music, is one of the major bodies of work by Rossif, which took him the second half of the 1970s to produce. Many episodes cover a specific country or region, some of them visit exotic locations such as Venezuela, Peru, India, Ireland, Greece, Celebes, Singapore, Zimbabwe, Cameroun and Indonesia.

The entire series consists of 21 episodes, which were broadcast on French television channel Antenne 2 from the end of 1976 until 1984. The series was also broadcast in Italy, Spain, Belgium and Germany. The broadcast in Germany on Bayerischen Rundfunk is a shorter edit titled "Tiere und Mythen".

Some of the music that Vangelis created for this television series was compiled on the album "Opera Sauvage" in 1979, which includes well-known themes like "Hymne", "Rêve" and "L'Enfant". This is only a fraction of the hours of music that Vangelis composed, and unfortunately most music of L'Opéra Sauvage remains unreleased to this day.

Other wildlife documentary series and films by Frédéric Rossif for which Vangelis composed an original score include "L'Apocalypse Des Animaux" (1973),  "La Fête Sauvage" (1976) and "Sauvage Et Beau" (1984).

 

LOperaSauvageCreditDetails and credits

  • Title: "L'Opéra Sauvage"
  • Year: 1975-1980
  • Country: France
  • Format: 16 mm color
  • Length: 21 episodes of about 52 minutes each
  • Directed by Frédéric Rossif
  • Music by Vangelis Papathanassiou
  • Text by Françoise Billetdoux, Hélène Bleskine and Madeleine Chapsal
  • Dialogs by Francois Billetdoux, Nicolas Silberg, Micheline Suzan and Pierre Vaneck
  • Cinematography: Bernard Zitzermann
  • Sound engineer: Harrick Maury
  • Montage: Marie Sophie Dubus
  • Producer: Michelle Wiart
  • Assistent producer: Jean-Charles Cuttoli
  • Produced by Télé Hachette

LOperaSauvageStill01Episodes

  1. L'Oiseau Couleur Du Temps (Venezuela) (24-12-1976)
  2. Quel Est Ton Destin? (27-12-1976)
  3. Le Chemin Vers La Mer  (28-12-1976)
  4. La Passion Du Souvenir (29-12-1976)
  5. Par Tous Les Vents? (31-12-1976)
  6. Le Temps De Dieu (25-07-1977)
  7. Les Chants Qui Viennent De La Mer (Peru) (18-12-1977?)
  8. L'Oeil Du Condor (Peru) (25-12-1977)
  9. Hier Et Demain, La Grèce (Greece) (01-01-1978)
  10. Tout Est Amour (India, Rajasthan) (08-01-1978)
  11. Une Musique Venue De La Mer (India) (15-01-1978)
  12. Le Rêve Celtique (Ireland) (22-01-1978)
  13. L'Espace Et Le Souvenir (Kashmir) (20-12-1979)
  14. Voyage À Java (23-12-1979)
  15. Un Rythme Absolu (Cameroun) (25-12-1979)
  16. Voyage Aux Célèbes (05-01-1980)
  17. Le Coeur Musicien (Karnataka)  (04-08-1980)
  18. Au Début Ce Fût La Musique (11-08-1980)
  19. Une Musique Qui Vient De Bali (1981, unknown date)
  20. Zimbabwe (01-01-1984)
  21. Singapour, Cette Ville Qui Vient De La Mer (Singapore) (23-09-1984)

Note that the episode about Bali does not contain any music by Vangelis.

 

Media

The only official release of "L'Opéra Sauvage" is a VHS boxset released in Italy, which contains 6 of the 21 episodes:

VHS

  • “L’Opera Selvaggia” Fabbri Video (6 VHS boxset, includes 6 episodes with Italian narration)

Unfortunately the complete television series remains unreleased until this day. Several episodes are known to have been recorded from television broadcasts.

 

Links

 

Gallery

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