Musica Festival, Strasbourg, September 21–30.
At the helm of the Musica Festival for nearly three decades, Jean-Dominique Marco, for its final edition, chose to pay tribute to the figure of Frank Zappa, whose work connects rock and written music. While it may seem stylistically eclectic, the oratorio 200 Motels – The Suites (1971) reveals the creative fecundity of a musician who did not hesitate to bring together on stage orchestra, choir, soloists, percussion ensemble, and jazz-rock combo. The orchestral passages alternate between atmospheres reminiscent of film music, symphonic pop, and more complex textures that betray the influence of Varèse and Stravinsky. The coherence of the whole is due to skillful writing and also to the unifying power of the young conductor Léo Warynski.

Zappa 200 Motels – The Suites. December 1st and 2nd, Nice, Opéra.
In the beginning was a film, released in theaters in 1971, 200 Motels, a kind of satirical docudrama about the tour of an American rock band, with lyrics and music by Frank Zappa, the most erudite guitarist of his time, a devotee of Varèse. In 2013, Esa-Pekka Salonen presented in Los Angeles Suites to this pop oratorio: it is this version that inspired conductor Léo Warynski and director Antoine Gindt. Presented in 2018 at the Musica Festival in Strasbourg and at the Philharmonie in Paris, their wildly imaginative work is being revived in Nice, where it brings together eight solo singers, the Opera Choir and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the city, the jazz fusion group The HeadShakers, and the Percussions de Strasbourg. There's electricity in the air!