"There is no other wall or barrier for man than Heaven!"
Stéphane Lissner

Last September, the Paris Opera opened its 2015/2016 season to Parisian audiences with Moses und Aron, a work that brought to the stage a fundamental question as to the meaning of images, the efficiency of words and the difficulty of communicating an idea. Faced with these dialectics, we all had in mind the events of January 2015, without knowing that the streets of Paris would once more be tragically revisited by terror just a few days after the final performance. 

This highly demanding production created a remarkable bond between the artists and the theatre’s teams. I will not forget it. Indeed i consider those performances as a foundation for future seasons. In an age where everything has to be simplified and codified, we have had proof, as much from the public’s reaction as that of the artists and crews of the Paris Opera, of the wealth of questions that can neither be ignored nor minimised. Our world is complex, and whilst we must, of course, offer the public the means to be entertained – we all remember the high points of a glorious vocal season – we also have an urgent duty to offer pause for reflexion

For my team and myself, the 2015/2016 season was synonymous with meeting the audiences of the Paris Opera. the public’s relationship with a theatre is something very particular. There is a mysterious and often irrational side to it, differing from one city to another. it may arouse enthusiasm, passion, and sometimes, mutual disappointment – why hide it? I will treasure some truly great moments: that instant before the applause when time seems frozen, the thousands of young people attending the avant‑premières, the opening of the Paris Opera’s Academy and the 3e scène. I will also remember the Va pensiero sung by our chorus in january and the minute of silence observed in november with all our staff in communion with the public, before a deeply moving rendition of La Marseillaise.

Ensuring that our theatres are more outward‑looking and accessible is an objective that all our staff tirelessly pursue with undying conviction. And that begins by fighting certain preconceptions. No, the Opera is not always sold‑out and out of the million tickets available each season, several tens of thousands remain available for purchase until the curtain rises. No, opera and ballet are not the exclusive domain of a privileged elite. To appreciate a performance, to feel the excitement, one doesn’t need to understand everything; one doesn’t need to read music or be an expert in entrechat. And if it is obvious that some seats are very expensive, who knows that over 50,000 tickets this season were offered at 50 euros and 400,000 at under 75 euros? making our theatres more accessible means thinking more about families – for the first time, we are offering families their own special subscription plan. it also means thinking more about young people and audiences affected by disabilities that all too often keep them away from theatres; it also means thinking of those members of the public who appreciate matinees or special weekend performances. It also means offering free performances, in France with the Summer Opera programme, and in Paris with the simultaneous broadcast of special concerts and performances on our giant screen on the Place de la Bastille.

Naturally, the widest-ranging repertoire is at home in our theatre which must open its doors to all tastes and sensibilities. The new productions – as numerous as ever – have been entrusted to conductors and directors, many of whom are making their Paris Opera debut. Some also belong to that new, very young generation of creators. The same is true for the singers. 

The Berlioz cycle continues and will expand to include Bizet, Gounod, Saint‑Saëns and Offenbach, and ultimately, in 2018, Meyerbeer, the most European of 19^th century composers. Following the same approach, the coming seasons will see several world-premiere productions based on our literary masterpieces, starting with Trompe-la-mort which will plunge us into the very heart of Balzac’s La Comédie humaine. Claudel’s Satin Slipper and Racine’s Bérénice will follow. These works share a profound complexity both in terms of actions and emotions. Here, Man’s ambivalence is irreducible and the conclusion can never allow even the slightest Manicheism.

As with last year, it is our ambition to create unexpected associations between the artistic forces of our House: namely, our orchestra, our chorus and our dancers. As a result, Così fan tutte will be directed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in her first collaboration with the Paris Opera in the opera repertoire. The production will alternate the dancers of her company and those of our company under the baton of Philippe Jordan.

The artists we have brought together with the teams of the Paris Opera are citizens committed to their mission and conscious of their duties towards the public. At the dawn of the 2016/2017 season, convinced that the Opera has a key role to play in abolishing the barriers of a world that it must help to build, I am reminded of the words written by Claudel in The Satin Slipper: