KICK-OFF FOR PASSERELLES’ AWARENESS-RAISING COURSES

On 4 and 5 December 2019, partners of Passerelles were invited to participate in two days of training at the set-construction and costume-production workshops in Venelles. The first day was devoted to discovering opera, and the second to exploring works from the 2020 Festival d’Aix programme.

The training sessions gave Passerelles partners an opportunity to discover different approaches to raising awareness among diverse audiences. The sessions served as a starting point — a veritable springboard — for awareness-raising courses that will be designed together with the partners. The courses are to be held regularly from January until the end of June 2020, in close collaboration with the Passerelles team, with the Festival’s technical staff and with artists who already participate in events with a variety of audiences, such as schools, universities, non-profit organisations, establishments in the health care industry, and social institutions throughout the region.

The activities — including a “chrono-opera” (60 minutes to discover opera), choreographic creation, vocal and theatrical training workshops, pop-up models of opera sets, and philosophy workshops — were rife with creativity, and provided partners with increasingly innovative and playful angles of attack. During the workshops, the partners experienced different artistic practices that will allow them to approach opera in all its forms within their organisations.

Concurrently with the first day of training, teachers participating in Accents Balkans (a project of instruction, repertoire and creation) discovered a programme of traditional songs from the project’s musical production. The teachers may now pass along these songs to their own students.

Finally, to illustrate each of these days through music, the soprano Marie-Laure Garnier and the pianist Celia Oneto Bensaid gave a recital of songs from the 2020 programme. In all, over 150 individuals from all sectors of the world of opera participated in this two-day event, filled with discussions, experiences and encounters, in a warm and friendly atmosphere.