In 2013, Thierry Escaich offered the Lyon Opera Claude, based on a libretto by Robert Badinter. For this new work, the world-renowned composer and organist - his Three Concertos for Organ have toured the world - has enlisted the services of a very special librettist: the French-Afghan writer Atiq Rahimi, winner of the 2008 Goncourt Prize for Syngué Sabour. After Claude's prison world, Thierry Escaich now tackles a completely different universe, that of tales and legends, but the composer's characteristic "liturgy of anguish" and unique musical sensitivity remain, enhanced for the occasion by oriental colours inspired by traditional Iranian music.

In Shirine, which is also a reflection on performance, the composer indulges in metaphorical writing that slips gently into the Persian fairy tale. This dimension is supported by the direction of Richard Brunel (Alexander von Zemlinsky's Le Cercle de craie at the Lyon Opera in 2018), and a cast made up of young and talented youngsters (Julien Behr and Jeanne Gérard in the roles of Khosrow and Shirine).