the opera ‘Carmen’ in front of the Church of St Étienne du Grès

Elisabeth Rabouin, local councillor responsible for Traditions, Culture and Festivities, describes the programme as ‘determined and assertive’. ‘We want to enable all cultures to find their place in Saint-Étienne du Grès. Putting on an opera is a big challenge for us, but putting on Carmen in our town makes sense. It's one of the most performed operas in the world and there are arias that everyone has in their heads!
This version has been condensed from 4 hours to just over 1 hour 45 minutes, while remaining faithful to the work, with a voice-over telling the story between the various scenes. This ‘pocket opera’ sums up the association's plan to ‘offer an uninitiated audience access to a complex work, to offer the first step towards making culture accessible to all’, underlines Cécilia Arbel, soprano and lead artist of ‘Les Enfants de Mnémosyne’.
Another special feature of this performance is that it will be given outdoors, in the Place Jean Galeron, in front of the church wall. We won't be using sound,’ points out the lyric artist. Our voices need a wall so that they can reach their full potential. Both an acoustic and an aesthetic necessity!
For practical reasons, the choirs have been dropped, with the exception of La garde montante. To be able to offer this, Cécilia Arbel has formed a partnership with the Saint-Étienne du Grès school. From the start of the new school year, the soprano will be teaching this famous aria to pupils in the first year of secondary school, so that they can perform it on stage alongside the opera singers.
In the spirit of nineteenth-century comic operas, this will be a simple, popular, convivial performance where, during the interval, it will be possible to eat a packed lunch, for example.