Locura (Spanish for madness) is the result of the collaboration between Mourad Merzouki and Franck-Emmanuel Comte on Folia, created in 2017 at the Nuits de Fourvière festival. A huge international success, the baroque hip hop ballet co-created by the two Lyon-based artists has delighted over 200,000 spectators on stages all over Europe. Locura is inspired by the major features of Folia: a singular visual and sonic poetry, a palette of strong emotions, and a wonderful artistic and human complicity between the dancers of the Compagnie Käfig and the musicians of the Concert de l'Hostel Dieu.

Far from being a ‘reduced’ version of the original work, Locura is presented as an ‘augmented concert’, drawing first and foremost on the ballet's remarkable ‘playlist’: a blend of baroque arias and popular Mediterranean music, at turns enchanting, bouncy and expressive. Tarantellas and virtuoso folias are all variations on the theme of madness, not in the psychiatric sense of the term, but as a disruptive force that shakes up and colours our lives. Each performer - opera singer, instrumentalists and dancers - makes this original musical material their own, playing with the contrasts and richness of this timeless, universal music with fluidity and mischief.