[ REHEARSAL NOTES ] LOUISE

Saturday, 7 June 2025 – Summer has barely begun, and already the first stage rehearsal of Louise is underway. Throughout the month of June, the courtyard of the Archevêché will become the setting for the love affairs of La Calisto and of Louise.
Throughout the day, the technical team has been at work installing the set for the new production of Gustave Charpentier’s opera Louise, as conceived by Christof Loy. In this mysterious waiting room, the young seamstress sees her hopes and anxieties, her desires and nightmares file past her. The sound of drills and the echo of voices signal that stage managers, carpenters, and set designers are still putting the final touches to the scenery. In the radiant afternoon light, the painters are refining the patina on the green-painted benches, etching into them markings intended to suggest the passage of time.

6:00 p.m. – Amid cheerful bustle, the rehearsal begins with the coronation of Louise as the “Muse of Montmartre” in Act III. The stage is jam-packed: stage right, a rowdy group of choirboys, some smirking policemen, and, in the centre, all the seamstresses and tradespeople of Paris. The “Pope of Fools,” played by Grégoire Mour, stands on a stepladder stage left, addressing the merry crowd, which also includes the Choir of the Opéra de Lyon. At the producer’s request, rehearsals take place in costume to help the performers inhabit their roles and to allow visual effects, the harmony of colours and shapes, to be evaluated more easily. One of the technicians weaves through the crowd to rehang the garland strung across a good third of the stage, but knocked off kilter by the flag waved by Le Gavroche.

Quiet on stage! The conductor gives the cue to the pianist, and an eruption of musical joy surges through the courtyard of the Archevêché. But the music is quickly cut short : Christof Loy explains how the groups assembled in this scene of popular celebration, as imagined by Gustave Charpentier, are meant to move. Little by little, the silhouettes of the Festival teams appear at the windows of the offices surrounding the courtyard to watch the Montmartre festivities in full swing. One of the assistant directors climbs onto the stage to demonstrate, with sweeping gestures, the posture to be adopted by the many characters. “Ich hab’ alles gesagt!” he finally shouts, turning back towards Christof Loy. As the evening progresses, the production team ensures that the children of the choir do not go home too late; the intensity of the rehearsal is doubtless overexciting them.

9:30 p.m. – After the break, the stage director and his team settle into the centre of the theatre seating to watch a piano run-through of Act I. Conversation and laughter gradually die down, a return to calm after the exuberance of Act III’s opening. From the moment the curtain rises, Elsa Dreisig’s performance as Louise is deeply moving in its authenticity: watching intently for comings and goings in this busy place, she seems to be waiting for someone’s arrival, as though she fears that something is going to happen.

Gustave Charpentier’s opera Louise opens with a duet between Louise and Julien, abruptly interrupted by the return of the mother, soon to be followed by Louise’s father. But at the end of the duet performed by Elsa Dreisig and Nicolas Courjal, who sings the role of the father, the run-through is interrupted. Sophie Koch, portraying Louise’s mother, is meant to close the shutters on the large windows at the rear of the stage, which give the set an illusion of depth. Christof Loy wants this theatrical gesture to take place gradually, much more slowly, rather like a vice that tightens imperceptibly around Louise, ensnared within the confines of her family triangle. The characters’ movements, facial expressions and every little gesture are carefully weighed up by the watchful eye of the production team.

In the pit and the auditorium, pianists and vocal coaches work hand in hand: while Sylvaine Carlier plays the full orchestral score at the piano, the conductor’s assistant Mathieu Pordoy closely follows the rehearsal, constantly jotting down notes. Back in the studio, he will have to polish the pronunciation of a word, suggest a different phrasing, or propose another musical interpretation. Their role is not simply to accompany the singers at the piano, but to guide them in mastering the stylistic subtleties of the work.

It is nearly half past midnight when the rehearsal comes to an end. Christof Loy and his team have filled an entire notebook with notes, which they will pass on to the company the following day. Lighting focus and cueing sessions will continue late into the night.

François Delécluse