VSarmen: stabbed; Violetta: died of illness and exhaustion; Norma: burned alive… Here is a (small) sample of the destinies reserved for the heroines of the opera. “I’ve always loved romantic music, and especially the role of Carmen,” says countertenor Théophile Alexandre, behind the NO(S) DAMES project, subtitled “Gendered tribute to opera heroines. “But when I lingered there, I realized this fatality which was reserved for women in the opera, and I made a rather unfortunate count of the fate of these heroines. With my company Up to the Moon, we therefore entrusted a man with the interpretation of these tunes and women with the musical direction. »
The man is therefore the singer Théophile Alexandre, and for the musical direction, it is the female string quartet Zaïde – Charlotte Maclet (violin 1), Leslie Boulin Raulet (violin 2), Sarah Chenaf (viola), Juliette Salmona (cello) – who is approached. “We have already been seduced by Théophile’s voice and the theme covered very quickly fascinated us. As a quartet of women, we were very involved and affected by the issue, explains Sarah Chenaf. Like any enthusiast, we have always seen it as something so beautiful… Femicide is coated like candy by all this music. These four centuries of opera where violence against women has been normalized is something that immediately challenged us. »
READ ALSOBut who was Bizet’s real “Carmen”?
The beginning of their work together three years ago is bearing fruit. First with an album of 24 titles, released on January 21, 2022, which honors 23 heroines (Médée, the queen of the night, or Manon, in addition to those previously mentioned…) from 17 composers. “The choice of works was motivated to highlight three stereotypes, specifies Sarah Chenaf, the virgin, the femme fatale and the witch. »
A “musical path”
The disc is not content to juxtapose pieces in potpourri mode, but, and this is one of its great strengths, offers a real musical journey from composer to composer. From Grieg to Kurt Weill via Saint-Saëns, we cross centuries and genres with true unity, guided by the voice of Théophile Alexandre and the strings of the Zaïde quartet. Thanks also to the superb arrangements of Éric Mouret, which tint for example the “Barcarolle” of Tales of Hoffmann of Offenbach with tango accents. “We worked on a real musical path to avoid patchwork, explains Théophile Alexandre. There is a choice of key so that it goes on like a mini-opera and that at the end of the listening it is as if it was a unique woman who had been celebrated and killed. »
READ ALSO“Realizing that we are conveying clichés is not censorship! »
The project is also available on stage, in a staging by Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau, which shows all the uniqueness of the project. In a recital format of 1h10 without intermission, the singer and the musicians come alive and respond to each other in a visually sober decor and with marked details, “relics”, Théophile Alexandre has fun: sequined dress, high heels and red gloves, with a bodily commitment that we have rarely seen on classical music stages. “We are happy to seize this opportunity, completes the flea beetle of the quartet, we were asked to get up, to play in the dark, to be really an actress, it resonates with the idea of the female subject. »
On April 11, the show will be at the Trianon in Paris, after a first date in the capital on January 9, and the evening will again be preceded by a conference on “the gender corsets of our culture”, hosted by the journalist Giulia Foïs with the philosopher Catherine Clément, the journalist Victoire Tuaillon and Ghada Hatem, director of the Maison des Femmes to which all the benefits of the evening will be donated. Because the subject is intended to be committed and not only artistic and invites a broader reflection on the place of women in our society, and in particular on the violence that is done to them.
name things
A book, released jointly and also titled OUR LADIES, offers a fascinating reflection on the subject. About fifteen artists (Astrig Siranossian, Debora Waldman, Julie Fuchs, Laurence Equilbey, etc.) were questioned on this relationship between genres in opera, but also on their own relationship with genre and the possible difficulties encountered, particularly in the world professional. Testimonies that mix points of view, never Manichean, always enriching.
READ ALSOBenjamin Bernheim: “We must democratize access to lyrical art”
No(s) Dames aims to speak to both classical lovers and those who are not used to opera, “we tackle this subject head-on and, through the music , we want to break the codes, speak freely and creatively and offer another way”, develops the counter-tenor. “We must not stop going to see Carmen, supports Sarah Chenaf, but we can take a current look at it and call things by their name. A crime of passion is a feminicide. With this coating by beauty, we normalize acts of cruelty. It shapes the collective unconscious, it’s not trivial to see women being murdered at the opera, at the theater or at the cinema…”
More information on the NO(S) DAMES project, in concert on April 11 at the Trianon and on tour throughout France.