Marion Cotillard to Lead JEANNE AU BUCHER Webcast, 11/17

On November 17 at 2pm EST, medici.tv will present a live webcast of French actress Marion Cotillard – winner of an Academy Award for her portrayal of Édith Piaf in the hit film La vie en rose – performing the lead role in Arthur Honegger's iconic 1935 oratorio, Jeanne au Bûcher ("Joan of Arc at the Stake"), at the Barcelona Auditori. The libretto for Honegger's Jeanne au Bûcher is a highly original creation by French poet and playwright Paul Claudel, who dramatized the last moments of the martyr's life. Featuring speaking and singing roles, Joan of Arc at the Stake has, since its Basel premiere in 1938, established itself as one of the most stunning dramatic oratorios in the history of music.

With his masterful score, Honegger highlights all the anguish and tension of Joan's interrogation and subsequent execution. The Swiss composer – one of the 20th-century's greatest composers for film – created visually evocative atmospheres, filling the orchestra with sounds (including those of saxophones and the ondes Martenot) that were on the cutting edge for their time.

On the Auditori stage, Marion Cotillard – who already performed this role in 2005, in France's Orléans – will join Marc Soustrot conducting the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC), actor Xavier Gallais (Brother Dominique), and tenor Yann Beuron (Porcus). The Barcelona Symphony Orchestra has been a live concert partner of medici.tv since 2011 and is one of the leading orchestra of Southern Europe.

This event will be streamed live on November 17 after which it will also be available for the next 90 days, only on medici.tv.Viewers can enjoy a simultaneous translation of the French verse. More information is available at: www.medici.tv/ - /jeanne-d-arc-au-bucher-honegger-obc-barcelona-marion-cotillard.

Marion Cotillard has already dazzled audiences with her performance in Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone, for which she was recently honored with the prize for best actress at the Hollywood Film Festival. Audiard's production also won the best film prize at this week's BFI London Film Festival.

"Marion Cotillard has anintense attachment to the work of Honneger. Her emotional intensity and incredible talent will make a blast of this moment. Her commitment to this project is a privilege. It is a perfect opportunity to create a wonderful bridge between cinema and classical music, in the way Roberto Rossellini did in the movie Joan of Arc at the Stake," says Hervé Boissière, founder of medici.tv.