Thanks to the BNP Paribas Foundation’s Coup de Pouce (Helping Hand) program, a young boy, 8 years old, has been attending the opera school for two years with diligence and great motivation. He’s a “man” of the theatre: he enjoys playing “Falstaff” by Verdi, who, hidden in a basket of dirty laundry to escape the wrath of his conquest’s husband, is thrown into the Thames; or who finds himself trapped in the forests of Windsor, surrounded by fairies and ghosts. He’s developing his personality and learning about himself by taking on strong character roles, such as Gianni Schicchi by Puccini, who disguises himself to steal the inheritance of a rapacious family, in order to provide a dowry for his daughter’s marriage.

This boy has become entirely at ease on stage after two years of the program, overcoming his initial stage fright. His mother, who raised him alone, is discovering her son’s hidden talents, her eyes shining with emotion …
What a gift of life!

At the opera school, he arrives every Wednesday at 2pm sharp and settles into the red armchairs of the Théâtre de l’Espérance (the Theatre of Hope), and waits for his fellow actors … he’s eager to find out what the opera of the day is!
Sophie claps her hands three times, and at once, the twenty children fall silent, all eyes turn towards her, and the tale can begin.

Telling an opera as if it were a fairy tale?  Why not!  It’s fun to bring the story to life by acting out the characters, imitating their voices and their expressions, to imagine oneself into the country and the city in which the action takes place.

Then Sophie suddenly shouts out: So who wants to play “Figaro”?  The “Queen of the Night”?  “Falstaff”? “Carmen”?  All the hands go up … me! me! me!

He gets up, puts on a costume jacket and climbs onto the stage – he’ll be improvising the dialogue … all the little fairies, aged 4 to 14, are in place on the stage, and the dialogue introduces the musical sequence.  A few young singers have solo parts, and they dive bravely into the scene, accompanied on piano by Paul, the music teacher and orchestra director.

After working on vocal placement and an introduction to breathing and sound exercises, the budding singers are ready!

The magic works … the children who are moving into the spotlights are crossing into another dimension, another reality, that of dreams …

They sing, dance and play for an hour and a half, then Sophie claps her hands three times, and the children rush to the edge of the stage to hear the new instructions.  This time, it’s time for a snack in the garden!  Cookies, madeleines and juice!

When the break is over, the children wash their hands and head to the model room.  They take out their scale models one by one, and place them on the table.

A little imagination, and the models come alive with coloured-in drawings of characters and nicely cut out decorations – the red curtains make it feel like opening night already …