Four singers, one actor, and three pianos. That's all that's needed to tell a suffocating story about the driving, transcending, and sometimes destructive power of imagination.

Philip Glass's chamber opera Les Enfants Terribles is based on the novel of the same name from 1929 by the French poet, writer, and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. The music is, in the words of director Béatrice Lachaussée, ‘mesmerizing, fascinating, hypnotic, sometimes cheerful and sometimes suffocating’. Glass is known for his repetitive minimal music. In Les Enfants Terribles, this music immediately evokes strong images. For Lachaussée, the music describes life, which continues endlessly, with ups and downs. There’s no escaping it: once you step onto that carousel, you must finish the ride...

Step into the hypnotic world of Les Enfants Terribles where fantasy and reality are no longer distinguishable.

• Les Enfants Terribles lasts ninety-five minutes and is sung in French, with Dutch and English surtitles.
• direction Béatrice Lachaussée musical direction Nicolas Krüger co-production Opera Zuid, De Nationale Opera & Nederlandse Reisopera