Choeur du Théâtre du Jorat - Ce Théâtre qui Chante (2024) [Hi-Res]

In 1903, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Canton of Vaud’s foundation, residents of Mézières decided to create a dramatic work with choral elements. This work, La Dîme, by the young and then little-known author René Morax, met with great success.

Following this success and after being asked to write the text for the 1905 Fête des Vignerons, for which Gustave Doret composed the music, Morax, Doret, and other collaborators, including the painter Jean Morax, decided to establish a popular rural theater. Encouraged by the writer Romain Rolland, this initiative led to the construction of the entirely wooden Théâtre du Jorat in Mézières, with a capacity of 1,100 seats and a stage measuring 25 meters wide. It opened in 1908 with a reprisal of La Dîme and a new work, Henriette, both with music by Doret.

The theater’s mission has been largely creative, premiering many Swiss works over its 70-year history. Notably, it staged Gluck’s Orpheus in 1911 with the patronage of Saint-Saëns and other figures. Several works, such as Aliénor (1965) and Le Roi David (a world-famous oratorio by Morax and Honegger), became part of its core repertoire.

In 1978, Le Chevalier de Grandson by Henri-Charles Tauxe, with music by Robert Mermoud, marked another success. The founders intended the theater to be a popular institution, supported by volunteer performers and widespread community involvement.

René Morax expressed a wish late in life for the theater to continue its tradition of offering true and moving works, which unite audiences. This wish has been honored, as demonstrated by the ongoing success of the theater’s performances.

The Théâtre du Jorat was intended by its founders to be a popular theater. All those who have since voluntarily assumed responsibility for its management have strived to preserve this character. The Théâtre du Jorat can be considered a nearly unique institution of its kind, at least in Switzerland. It is popular because of the large audience that attends its performances; because of the voluntary participation of the singers; and because of the broad support from the local population, which considers it as “their thing,” notably by supporting it financially on their own initiative.

René Morax, in the last years of his life, expressed himself in these terms:
“I have but one wish, and that is that the old program we had at the start of this long undertaking be respected, and that we stick to performing at the Théâtre de Mézières works, whether dramatic or musical, old or modern, that are true, that are moving, that serve as a common hearth for a large public, for people eager to tremble together.”

This wish has been respected because it meets a real cultural and popular need, as evidenced by the renewed success of the performances presented in the vast wooden vessel of Mézières.