When Choderlos de Laclos wrote Dangerous Liaisons in the 18th century, he could not have imagined how the world was going to change and how his exemplarily sarcastic costume drama would be revisited again and again, from multiple perspectives and not just in different disciplines of art, but also in philosophy and psychoanalysis. He would certainly not have thought that his work would become a model to explore the perversity of human relationships and the hypocrisy of our desires. The question that continues to dangle in the air is this: are all liaisons ultimately dangerous?

What will be the nature of the liaison between Luca Francesconi (1956, Italy) and Paulo Tunhas (1960, Portugal)? Francesconi is the founder of Agon Acustica Informatica Musica, a centre for musical research and production that makes extensive use of new technologies, and is particularly interested in electro-acoustics. He composed the opera Quartet, inspired by Heiner Müller’s work of the same name, which, in turn, was based on Laclos. Tunhas teaches Modern Philosophy and runs the PhD seminar “Thought and its objects” at the Faculty of Letters, University of Porto. He is also renowned for his publications, especially his controversial chronicles. How dangerous can this liaison be? These issues will be clarified by the moderator - the musicologist Pascal Huynh - chief editor of the concert programmes at the Cité de la Musique / Philharmonie de Paris.

Simultaneous translation.