Émilie & Voltaire at Cirey

How their story led to a unique cinematic opera ...

I have studied the works of Gabrielle-Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet, for many years and I have lived and worked at her ancestral family's home, the Château de Breteuil, southwest of Paris. The place where she and Voltaire famously lived under the same roof together is Cirey in the Haute Marne, that very roof being featured in the image! It forms part of the setting for Murder at Cirey, which begins on the very day in 1735 when Émilie comes to live with her controversial lover.

I'm so bound up in her life as physicist, mathematician and star of the Enlightenment that I have also told her story in the libretto and screenplay of an opera intended for streaming on the small screen, composed by the brilliant young Nicholas Gentile. Together we have so far produced a 21-minute proof-of-concept film that has won awards in Paris and Cannes, and related recordings that you can access by clicking the YouTube button at the foot of this page. I will post further about the opera and show you more of Cirey as we progress towards production of the full-length film.