A tribute to Robert Houdin

Giving new life to the french cultural and magical heritage

For the first time in more than a century, Laurent Beretta revives the magical & cultural heritage of France, with his show “Les Soirées Fantastiques”. A tribute show in the birthplace of Robert Houdin. 150 years after Robert Houdin’s death, Laurent Beretta, renowned French illusionist and grand prize winner of the « Magic Stars » of Monaco, is invited to Saint-Gervais-la-Forêt, Robert Houdin’s hometown, in September 2021. He performs exceptionaly in the artist’s own house, the Prieuré.

Robert Houdin’s mythical house, Le Prieuré, where no magician has ever presented a magic show, Laurent Beretta enchants Le Prieuré’s gardens with his tribute to the master illusionist, Robert Houdin.

A full theater! Subsequently, on June 12, 2021, in Robert Houdin’s city theater, Laurent Beretta inaugurated his first Fantastic Evening in front of an enthusiastic audience and a full house. During a “Fantastic Evening”, Laurent Beretta brings to life the prestige and inventiveness of Robert-Houdin’s Tout-Paris in the mid-19th century.

The quintessence of the magical arts…comes to life again, live in Paris

Jean-Eugene Robert Houdin revolutionized the art of magic. Illusionist, clock maker, scientist, inventor and writer, he is a true French genius. His success was total and the whole of Paris flocked to see his incredible shows. He became and remained the most famous French magician. An intimate, intense and exclusive magic experience. This magical theater quickly became the most sought after in Europe, attracting the most illustrious and brilliant personalities, artists and entrepreneurs. Laurent Beretta is inspired by the codes and repertoire of the time, to share again this intimate, intense and magical experience.

A magical art that takes on its full meaning. The « Soirées Fantastiques » revive the extraordinary and the wonder of a time when magic conquered its letters of nobility and became the « Queen of Arts ». Robert-Houdin distinguished himself by the multiplicity of new principles that he integrated into his automaton creations. Goblet players, rope dancers, mechanical birds enchanted an audience in search of the imaginary. For the first time in public, during his show in the city of Robert Houdin, after years of research around the world, Laurent Beretta brings back to life the masterpieces of ingenuity and the aesthetics of the master watchmaker.

His « singing birds » literally enchant this « Soirée Fantastique » with their melody and mechanical prowess. For the first time, an orange tree comes to life before your eyes, the marvelous orange tree. This is without a doubt Robert-Houdin’s most poetic trick, inspired by the Italian vogue for orangeries. Laurent Beretta has reinterpreted it in his own way, as did the actor Edward Norton in the movie The Illusionist (2006).

This automaton orange tree covers itself with white flowers before giving birth to real oranges in an extremely short time, as if by spontaneous germination. It is the highlight of the « Soirées Fantastiques », when two butterflies emerge from an orange to unfold a handkerchief and reveal the ring borrowed from a spectator !

For the first time, the magic of taste is reborn and adorned with French culinary prowess

The Palais Royal pastry chef, an essential automaton in Robert-Houdin’s repertoire, stages a somewhat unique prop: your favorite pastries. They appear, in front of you, fresh and ready to be tasted. Thus, for the first time, the spectators of this evening live an immersive experience, as if in the 19th century, with the best magician of Paris.

The Soirées Fantastiques offer a journey through time. At the heart of the magical emotion, Laurent Beretta brilliantly embodies this cultural and historical heritage transmitted by the upheavals of the 19th century. Each spectator takes home a part of the enchantment, a part of the French spirit. Such is the miracle of the « Soirées Fantastiques ». For a moment, what you believe to be true dissolves into a second that lasts… The impossible becomes real and simply beautiful.