Created in 2015, the Maîtrise Populaire de l'Opéra Comique is the first educational programme dedicated to the performing arts. The ambition of this Opera Comique initiative is to “decomplicate, decompartmentalise, and open up to other horizons”; it protects these “virtues of the performing arts” to which it adds “the power of the voice, its evocative power, all the dimensions of well-being that it allows to share”. The artistic director is Sarah Koné.
Popular? The education programme certainly is in its recruitment. When recruited, the hundred or so children, aged between 8 and 25, who take part had not received any specific musical or artistic training. These non-musicians were chosen without discrimination on the basis of educational level or family situation. As they do not read music, they learn the melodies using alternative methods: the Dalcroze method and the O Passo method, which allow them to understand space and rhythm through their bodies and movement (walking, for example).
This training leads to the production of shows that bring together all the choristers every year... sometimes in front of some 1200 spectators!
We have been supporting the Maîtrise populaire de l'Opéra-Comique since 2018.
