Participatory opera, “elixir” of youth

Eighteen thousand! This is the number of children who discover each season, amazed, one of the great standards of the lyrical repertoire made available to them by the great adventure of participatory opera. Anchored for almost ten years within the walls of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, reaching families as well as students in REP and REP classes (more than a thousand each season), but also children with disabilities, particularly the visually impaired ( for whom the theater now offers a “chansigne” session) or the hearing impaired, this phenomenon is conquering more and more opera houses. He was able to find his audience well beyond expectations. A success which, for Michel Franck, general director of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, can be explained by the fact that “participatory opera is a phenomenon that is as musical as it is societal. In a world of communications, where we are increasingly isolated, there is a public need for shows that break the fourth wall,” he assures.

But participatory opera does not stop at the educational approach alone. Designed to make the standards of the repertoire accessible to the youngest, barely exceeding an hour and fifteen minutes, with lyrics translated into French and a lighter orchestra, these shows follow a well-oiled mechanism. Offering the public, before the performances, access to a song learning booklet and a preparation session. If the latter attracts an ever-increasing number of parents (or grandparents) and children each year, it has also proven, over the seasons, to be a fantastic revealer of talent. Each time highlighting the best of the young generation of opera singers.

The latest productions, dedicated to The Magic Flute in 2022-2023 and to La Cenerentola in 2021-2022, were no exception to the rule, since they made it possible to discover two names who shone at the last Victoires de la musique in the category of revelations, and seem well on their way to lasting shine in the opera firmament: Juliette Mey and Lauranne Oliva.

After Julie Depardieu last year, this season, it is up to director Manuel Renga to have the task of shattering this fourth wall. With a title tailor-made for the fantasy and sense of wonder that the former assistant at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan has been putting at the service of young opera audiences for ten years now: An elixir of love. His vision, which should have seen the light of day during Covid but could only be captured for streaming or DVD publishing, promises a shock encounter between two universes which still speak to children without having aged: that of Chaplin and his Modern Times, and that of Roald Dahl with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

In terms of revelations, it is in particular in the management that we will be watching this time for the emergence of a great potential talent: that of the young Vaudois Marc Leroy-Calatayud. The former assistant at the Bordeaux Opera, at the helm of the recent successful return (in a spatialized concert version) of Weill's Seven Deadly Sins at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, will be here at the desk of Frivolités parisiennes.