This season, the Opéra national de Lorraine closes the year with Giuseppe Verdi's operatic monument La Traviata. This romantic drama is the starting point for a large-scale cultural action program, the Violetta·s project, designed to question gender archetypes in opera. At the heart of La Traviata, the character of Violetta combines all the characteristics of the lyrical heroine: sublime, passionate lover and great martyr. However, as a successful courtesan, she also redefines the contours of social conventions. The ambition of Violetta·s project is to create a piece of musical theater based on a reflection on gender identity. Who would Violetta be if she were not the stereotype of the woman, conceived under a male gaze specific to another era? To answer this question, the Opéra national de Lorraine brought together transgender people for whom reflection on identity is fundamental. Under the aegis of artist Vanasay Khamphommala, this troupe of non-professional playwrights drew on Verdi's libretto to question the different dimensions of Violetta's personality, and thus explore what the opera does not say.
The Opera has entrusted the staging of this project to Laëtitia Guédon, a director who is well-versed in the exercise of transmission. This artist, director of the Plateaux Sauvages theater in Paris, works for cultural crossbreeding and her work synthesizes distant artistic aesthetics. She will lead the troupe of non-professional playwrights to the Salle Poirel stage, engaging them in assiduous theatrical work.
The Violetta·s project is a contemporary tribute to an operatic masterpiece, combining contemporary theatrical creation and operatic musical practice. The musical dimension of the project has been entrusted to the conductor William Le Sage. Alongside him, the choir of musicology students from Université de Lorraine and vocal technique students from Conservatoire de Nancy, their teacher Célia Pierre, and the Opera Orchestra will defend Verdi's extraordinary score.
