Biography
Antoine Juliens
Author Director Painter
Artistic Director of TEATR'OPERA
Originally from Virton, Antoine Juliens, whose real name is Jean-Louis Richard, received training in visual arts at the École Saint-Luc in Brussels and in theater at the Institut des Arts de Diffusion in Louvain.
Henri Van Lier (philosopher), Pierre Laroche and Pierre Debauche (directors) as well as Jean Duvignaud, Jean Rouvet and Denis Bablet (from the CNRS) open his way to questioning art and the world.
Director, playwright and painter, Antoine Juliens is artistic director of the TEATR’OPERA Company which he created in 1991 with Isabelle Maudet (actress and acting director assistant).
He put on around fifty shows in France and abroad, initiating the form of theatrical oratorio, and was inspired by ancient and modern texts: Maeterlinck, Shakespeare, Dante, Attâr, Goethe, Gogol, Claudel, Rilke, Baudry, Beckett, Norén, Mirbeau and his friends Henri Meschonnic and Pierre Klossowski.
Among his main productions, Antoine Juliens created The Aeneid after Virgil (translation by Klossowski, French tour), Nuit Dantesque, translating Dante's Divine Comedy for the Colla Voce Festival in Poitiers (Planetarium and National Museum Sainte- Croix), The Mystery of the Conversion by Paul Claudel, theatrical oratorio in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris for the fiftieth anniversary of Claudel's death, Au Bois Lacté, opera by François Narboni after Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas for the Metz Opera, Offenbach On Stage, opera-theatre based on the works and life of Offenbach in Ile-de-France.
In 2010, he founded VERBE SACRÉ, a cultural event with 10 years of theatrical creations on the historic site of Landévennec (Brittany). In 2018, more than 60 paintings related to the creations are exhibited in the auditorium.
As part of INTERREG, he produced in July 2014 in Virton (Belgian Luxembourg), Oratorio for Peace, commemorative show of the Battle of the Three Borders, with more than 500 participants from the Region (amateurs and professionals).
65 paintings were produced as part of this show and were exhibited in the cellars of the Hotel of City of Virton. Around fifty works are now part of the historical and cultural heritage of the Latour War Museum (Baillet-Latour Foundation, Belgium).
In 2017, Antoine Juliens wrote and directed REDEMPTION or the madness of always better. Creation for the centenary of Octave Mirbeau, at the ROx in Rouvroy and at the Cultural Center of Bertrix.
An exhibition related to theatrical creation is presented in the Cultural Centers (Bertrix and Rouvroy). The ensemble is now part of the cultural fund of a philosophical association located in Brittany.He provided awareness training in artistic disciplines at the EAC Paris (Ecole des Métiers de la Culture) and from 2015 to 2019 the direction of play for Lyric artists at the International Sommerakademie am Rhein (Germany).
He stages operas and musical works: Handel, Offenbach, Stockhausen, Messiaen, and works with composers and performers: Michel Musseau, Fabien Tehericsen, Thierry Pécou, Alain Celo, François Narboni, Michel Boédec, Thierry Chleide, and performer texts by Claudel and Péguy with Jean-Pierre Leguay.
The Genius of Contemporary Marquetry, GEMAC, called on him for the scenographies of the Salons Matières & Sens in Paris 11th in 2012 and 2013, as well as at the Orangerie du Sénat (Paris) in August 2013.
Exhibitions of paintings, the basis of his theatrical work, at the Salon de Paris XIè (Olympe de Gouges) and in the Galerie du Marais (Paris). To commemorate the 950th anniversary of the Abbey of Orval (Belgium), the Cistercian Community commissioned a theatrical oratorio, L’Or du Val. Creation in July 2021. Music by Thierry Chleide & costumes by Laurence Chapellier (Arts et Métiers ENSAAMA and Paul Poiret School in Paris). A selection of paintings and sketches related to dramaturgy are exhibited in the 18th century cellars of the Museum of the old abbey. A Decalogue (10 60/80 paintings) and a Via Crucis (17 60/80 paintings) make up a collection now belonging to the Abbey of Orval (Belgium). A Via Crucis exhibition is being prepared for 2024.
Antoine Juliens receives support from the Beaumarchais Foundation (Paris) for his opera libretto El-Gabal.
In 2019, the Godefroid Culture was awarded to him by the Province of Luxembourg for all of his work.
From June 2021 to September 2022, 80 paintings inspired by the Ardennes and Gaume, “Rhapsodie picturale” are exhibited at the Provincial Palace of Arlon, at the invitation of the Governor of the Province of Luxembourg.
A set is now part of a heritage fund attributed to the Province.
He produced the visuals for 2 CDs Improvisations Organ and Piano (2022) and the book "Portrait of a composer and improviser" by Jean-Pierre Leguay, Organist Emeritus of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris.
He is working on a theatrical project inspired by the origins of Belgium, historical texts and the writings of Author Guy Denis, from the Luxembourg Academy. Entitled "AMBIORIX le loup roi", the project is preparing for a creation in 2023-2024.
The Archives of Teatr’Opera are deposited at the Archives and Museum of Literature in (AML) in Brussels, and his works and pictorial research are represented on the Belgian Art Gallery website.