Children of El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée perform The Selfish Giant - image courtesy of Marie-Noelle Archambault

El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée comprises three nucleos on the French Mediterranean coast, working with children in Cannes, Draguignan and Nice.

Following a successful pilot programme and an innovative operatic performance of Peter Pan at Cannes’ Palais des Festival in February 2017, French Director Magali Thomas and Italian Composer and Conductor Sergio Monterisi officially set up their first El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée nucleo in Cannes in November 2017. In January 2018, the programme then expanded to cater to Nice and a total of c. 100 children in the Alpes-Maritimes region, before establishing its most recent centre in Draguignan in January 2019, thus raising the total number of Opéra Méditerranée children to c.150.

El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée in Cannes

The original project in Cannes serves 30 children between the ages of six and 14, 20 of whom also featured in the pilot project and performed in Peter Pan in February 2017. These children come from a mixture of social backgrounds and origins (North Africa, Asia, South America and France) and, with a few exceptions, mainly live in the disadvantaged République and La Frayère neighbourhoods of Cannes.

The schedule in Cannes comprises three hours a day of music tuition over three days a week and a standard El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée week here will correspond to the following pattern:

  • Day 1: Theory and solfège (1 hr), vocal technique (30 mins) & learning new choral pieces (1.5 hrs)
  • Day 2: Theory and solfège (30 mins), vocal technique (30 mins), learning new choral pieces (1.5 hrs) & theatrical improvisation (1 hr)
  • Day 3: Vocal technique (30 mins), practising choral pieces (30 mins) & acting and rehearsing on stage (2 hrs)

On each of the three days, there is also a rotating schedule of individual classes, which ensures that each child gets an individual lesson every week. On top of the more direct music tuition on offer, the El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée team takes time to teach its children about the basic notions of the history of music and opera, to let the children listen to recordings and to arrange meetings with professional singers, who put on performances and respond to questions from the children. 

Furthermore, El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée provides some children with an introduction to piano playing and occasionally invites musicians to play during their sessions and to introduce their instruments to the children. The team also endeavours to immerse its pupils in every aspect of the experience of putting on an opera production, showing them how establishments work with costumes and ensuring their exposure to the full gamut of different types of rehearsals.

Watch the Cannes nucleo rehearse for their performance of The Selfish Giant

El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée in Nice

In Nice, El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée works in collaboration with both a primary and a secondary school in a disadvantaged part of the city. Although the project only started at the beginning of 2018, it had already grown to provide four hours of music tuition a week to about 70 students by the end of the year. This programme is fortunate enough to benefit from the support of the local university, which supports the project with the goal of ensuring that scientific and artistic culture is made available to all, regardless of one’s background.

El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée in Draguignan

Together with the Draguignan Conservatoire and the City of Draguignan and its educational structures, Opéra Méditerranée started a new programme in this important city of the Var region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in early 2019.

The first few months of 2019 have seen the team both establish a nucleo catering to more than 50 primary school children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods and introduce numerous primary and secondary school classes to opera via a series of open rehearsals. With the support of the conservatoire’s director, the world-famous pianist, Elena Rozanova, a May 2019 performance of Peter Pan in Draguignan will soon form the crowning point of this early phase of the nucleo, as the new collaboration is officially introduced to the public.

Over the coming years, Opéra Méditerranée intends to then further develop the Draguignan nucleo, with interpretations of Peter Pan already planned together with the children of the Cannes and Nice nucleos and the Symphony Orchestra of the Toulon Opera. Furthermore, in 2020, Opéra Méditerranée will seek to expand to more schools in the area, as it works towards the realisation of the world première of Sergio Monterisi and Magali Thomas’ new opera, Circo!, written especially for Draguignan and laying claim to being the first opera to combine the lyric tradition with circus arts

Going forwards

El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée aspires to work with all of its current young musicians until the age of 18 and to continuously integrate new pupils of various levels each year. The programme is also continually looking into the possibility of extending its activities to other cities in the region, in the hope of giving even more children the opportunity to gain an education in the arts.

Building on the success of its performances of Peter Pan, The Selfish Giant and Carmen, El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée will continue to create new operas and to organise additional shows which offer the children the opportunity to get on stage and to perform highlights of operatic repertoires. 

To find out more about El Sistema France Opéra Méditerranée, visit the programme's Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/elsistemaoperamediterranee/