• Great classical works and big names in opera singing were announced this Tuesday on the occasion of the presentation of the 2022/2023 season of the Bordeaux Opera.

  • But the new director, Emmanuel Hondré, above all insisted on his desire to transform the institution into a citizen opera.

  • The public will be more and more invited to participate, a youth rate of 10 euros per seat will be created, and the programming will open up to world music.

Of course, there will be great unmissable moments for opera lovers, from

Madame Butterfly

to

La Favorite

via

Porgy and Bess

.

The great voices of opera singing will be there, such as Benjamin Bernheim, Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Ekaterina Semenchuk.

But what we learned from the presentation of the 2022/2023 season of the Bordeaux Opera, this Tuesday, is elsewhere.

Wishing henceforth a “citizen opera”, the new municipality of Bordeaux asked its new director, Emmanuel Hondré, to break the codes.

To invent new modes of expression to attract another audience.

Public vote for the Christmas concert

This is how Bordeaux is now moving towards a more participatory opera.

For example, in December, "we are going to try, for the first time in Bordeaux, to get the public to vote during the series of Christmas concerts", announces Emmanuel Hondré.

The orchestra will therefore propose several pieces, “and it is by a show of hands that the public will choose the works they want to hear”.

This promises "a fairly warm atmosphere" anticipates the director of the opera.

"And as the concert is given several times, each evening it will therefore be different", he continues, specifying that "this obviously obliges the orchestra to prepare a greater number of works".

Another novelty, an opera with a room that sings.

“We are going to propose to a family room and a school room to sing on

A Cenerentola (Cinderella)

by Rossini, details Emmanuel Hondré.

The public will learn thanks to listening guides, and work carried out before the show with teachers [all practical information on opera-bordeaux.com], and once they are in the room, they will of course be able to listen , but there are times when he will be asked to sing.

There have already been experiments carried out on part of the show, but it's very rare to go all the way to the end and it will be a first in Bordeaux.

»

Attract "a prevented public"

Always in this desire to involve the public, a "concert-meeting" will be organized in the village hall of the Grand Parc district in Bordeaux.

“For half an hour we will play a great work, and for the other half hour or so the orchestra will meet and talk with the audience.

»

It is not a question of “opposing openness to society to artistic excellence” insists Emmanuel Hondré.

“It's about attracting a new audience that we have to seek out, an audience that is unable to come to our venues because it is too far from the challenges of music, and dance in particular.

This is why we are going to work with associative relays to build actions with the citizens who surround us.

»

This is also why the opera is going to develop its programming outside the walls by going from around fifty performances outside to 75. And why it is changing its price list.

“One of our watchwords is place for young people, announces Emmanuel Hondré, and pricing will be reserved for them, at the price of 10 euros per place whatever the show, provided they take out a subscription to at least five shows.

»

Opening to world music

On musical forms, the public will also discover something new, since the opera will open up to world music.

“There will be two programs in particular, notes Emmanuel Hondré: on March 21 we will offer

Dance and masked ballet from Bali

, which will come in its entirety with a Balinese orchestra and dancers, then a little later whirling dervishes.

»

For the director of the opera, "there is no high culture which would be classical music, and no subcultures which would be popular music that comes from different corners of the world: there are several forms of high culture" .

In addition to breaking codes, Emmanuel Hondré's roadmap will also be to break the elitist image of opera.

Opening of reservations for subscriptions on Wednesday June 15, and for individual tickets on June 28

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