Joan of Arc (Marion Cotillard) and Brother Dominique (Éric Génovèse) contemplate her fate as the stake awaits (photo by Startraks Photo/Rex Shutterstock)
Who: Actors Marion Cotillard, Éric Génovèse, and Christian Gonon, the New York Choral Artists, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, conductor Alan Gilbert, the New York Philharmonic, and others
What: Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake
Where: Avery Fisher Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, 212-875-5030
When: Saturday, June 13, $50-$164, 8:00
Why: Director Côme de Bellescize’s concert staging of Swiss composer Arthur Honegger’s 1935 oratorio Joan of Arc at the Stake might occasionally be more than a bit head-scratching (a court of adults and children in animal costumes?), but the music, conducted by Alan Gilbert, is glorious, with the Philharmonic joined by the New York Choral Artists, who hover in the back like an angelic jury, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, composed of children in a dazzling spectrum of outfits. Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) stars as Joan of Arc, the fifteenth-century French nationalist heroine who is accused of being a witch and a heretic. The production works best when Joan and Brother Dominique (Éric Génovèse) examine her life and fate, on a central wooden rectangular stage featuring a threatening stake in front of hellish red lighting. Other standouts include Faith Sherman as Catherine and Simone Osborne as Marguerite. The eighty-minute presentation is divided into a prologue followed by eleven scenes, with such titles as “The Voices of Heaven,” “Joan Given Up to the Beasts,” and “The Sword of Joan,” leading to a powerful, emotional conclusion.