On the occasion of the presentation of its first season as General and Artistic Director of Angers Nantes Opéra, Webtheater met Alexandra Lacroix.
Webtheatre: The Ministry of Culture announced this morning that Angers Nantes Opéra, with Tours, had become a lyric theater of national interest. What flavor does this news have?
Alexandra Lacroix : This is excellent news, which recognizes both the project for the next five years and the solidity of our institution. This represented a year of work and it is now a responsibility and a commitment that we are making towards the Ministry, for five years. I recognized myself in the specifications, particularly around the link with audiences and territories, support for creation and innovation. This is a good signal sent to our financial partners, who have supported this initiative for a long time.
In this regard, what is the financial situation of Angers Nantes Opéra? Does this label provide you with financial security?
I am necessarily worried: the situation is not specific to Angers Nantes Opéra, it is a difficult context for everyone and I believe that we must take up the fight collectively, pool together. This is one of the reasons for my commitment as vice-president of the Musical Forces. Obviously, today I am not presenting the season that I had imagined when I submitted my application. We have to do with less, but I don’t want the life of an opera to be reduced to the budgetary question; I am an artist, I was appointed for a public service mission, to develop the imagination, to make people dream: this is the center of my project.
However, there are fewer curtains raised for this new season…
No, there will be more this season, to meet strong public demand. We find solutions other than the presentation of great works, so that everyone has a reason to pass through the door of the opera. These are short-term solutions, through the choice of works, the formats, but we maintain high quality programming.
We will therefore see from September the first season that you sign, after a year and a half of preparation. You placed it under the sign of love, what should we expect?
I wanted to give a story that will accompany the audience all season, and this year it is “love, its proofs and its trials” with four variations. I don’t want to talk about love as a consensual feeling, but about love as a revealer of society. There are love stories in all operas, and they approach it from several angles: fidelity, jealousy, possession, desire, sacrifice… Love tells what is most profoundly human, universal. I come to tell stories, because stories bring us together.
Isn’t this a theme… already seen?
Of course, but inexhaustible and full of twists and turns. At the opera, we are constantly on a crest line, in tension, there is no stability. Love can be romantic but that’s not what interests me. I fundamentally believe in the dramatic tension that love creates, in the encounter, the attraction of bodies, impossible love. Love is made of contrasts, it is timeless, and unfortunately leads to deviations. This is what opera shows, and it still resonates with us today.
You talk about variations around this great theme, how can we understand this term?
I speak of “variations”, because around four great works there will be a multitude of proposals which will echo them: extended concerts, round tables, debates, performances… It is a way of opening our house to more varied audiences, of giving keys to listening, of showing others arts I am convinced that opera lovers will always come for a work, because they know, they love this art and they will never be disappointed: we will not lose artistic excellence. Others must find approaches that speak to them. We often talk about “going towards” the public, this must be done by leaving our theaters, but also with these new forms.
So you were talking about four variations…
Yes, the first, around Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, is “mortal love” in both senses of the term. In the brilliant and superhuman sense of a love that leads you to surpass yourself, of course, but also in what leads to loss, to death. The second variation concerns the duality “passion, possession”, with The Carmen Casewhich starts from the final duet of Carmen to reread the whole story in terms of its outcome, while remaining very faithful to it. The third is entitled “Deceived Hearts” and talks about the modalities of love. Obviously, by ramification, we will deal with questions of gender, new ways of loving one another, fidelity, subjects which span the centuries of opera. The last variation concerns “always love”, the unique and absolute love, almost obsessive, which often in opera is prevented by social conventions. Werther serves as a point of support for us.
Ultimately, aren’t these variations a way of politicizing opera, or even of dealing with the issue of women more broadly?
Art is political, but the primary goal of opera is more to create emotion, to create an internal movement, to take a step back from everyday life than to convey political messages. Opera brings us together and surpasses us, it is not the place to dictate ways of thinking, we do not seek to control. And yes of course, women occupy a central place in all these love stories at the opera. But by contrast, it is as much the subject of men that is treated.
You mentioned new forms surrounding these “great operas”, and we heard you talk about research around music, can you tell us more?
We launched the RING Lab which brings together four people for a year who will reflect on the emergence of new artistic forms, through the prism of singing, staging and composition. There is also the Committee Eightmade up of six professionals from law, health, literature, music, entertainment, sociology, who will allow us to take a step back from the subjects covered this season. They will give lectures and bring their perspective and expertise to the public.
We also noticed in your programming the recitals of Sabine Devieilhe and Julie Fuchs…
I’m happy that they’re taking us into their story! I would simply like to point out that we wanted to imagine something other than the classic recital, a difficult form which struggles to find its audience here, even among the most initiated. We called these sequences “Music on stage”, they lead great voices to play with the stage, while keeping the intimate character of these shows. There will be more stage generosity.
We observe, through opera houses, certain productions presenting works revisited, rewritten, shortened. Do you think that the future of opera is necessarily written in this way in order to move people today?
I don’t think so, no. The challenge, in my opinion, is to delve into the work and see how it can resonate today, which involves a lot of work to understand where it emerged from, in what historical and societal context, and what the composer wanted to do with it. This is how I approached my work for The Carmen Case. I don’t believe that we are necessarily more faithful to an opera when we stage it in period costumes. Certain reconstructions are very accurate, sometimes certain adaptations seem welcome, to bring out the meaning, to adapt the subject to our times. The opera is not the place for entertainment, it is not intended to please at all costs, but it is an artistic object, in all its complexity. Why do we come to the show? We come to share, debate, confront and have emotions. Music carries beauty in itself, artistic biases serve to provide a vision. My goal is for everyone to experience something very strong, which will mark them, opera is a place where something happens to us.
You recalled that you are an artist, known in particular for your productions. As general director of an opera, you certainly neglect the artistic dimension in favor of the management of the establishment…
You are right, I have less time to devote to pure artistic work, although I have kept some commitments and commissions for the next seasons. But being an opera director means programming, being in permanent contact with the artists, and therefore keeping your eyes on the artistic part. I approach the opera as a work, but over a long period. And then, I do not discover the budgetary and managerial subjects which were already my daily life with my company MPDA, this human part in particular interests me a lot.
The ecological transition takes an important place in your project. Can we really produce a more “green” opera?
Of course, and we have no choice! It was one of my priorities when I arrived. I was happy to feel the support of all the teams, who are ready to do differently, it’s simply a matter of time, we have to change habits. The challenge is to extract as few new resources as possible, I strongly believe in reusing sets, structures, costumes. Here again, we need to pool our efforts and we have mobilized with the Forces musicales, ARVIVA which provides us with know-how and methods, as well as with the Opéras de Limoges and Bordeaux, already launched in this approach. We are also studying the work of 17h25, who designs stagings based on standardized structures between opera houses: the sets can travel more lightly. We also need to think about travel: fewer trucks for sets, favoring national or regional singers…
Can co-productions be one of the ways to limit the footprint?
I would like to extend the work already started with Rennes, Tours and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. There is also Nancy, Luxembourg, the Opéra-Comique, the Opéra national du Rhin… We would no longer understand today that a set is only used for a few dates, it is logical to pool for ecological, but also economic, reasons! This is also an opportunity for us to showcase the work and know-how of our workshops (see Webtheater reports), sets and costumes. The last Robinson Crusoé that we saw in Angers and Nantes was a co-production with the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
You arrived in Nantes a little over a year and a half ago, how did your integration go?
I immediately felt that my project was consistent with Angers and Nantes, cities of culture and nature. I immediately met the players in the region and felt this vitality. It’s unique to have an institution in two cities, and it works very well here! Angers Nantes Opéra is also a connection with all the cultural actors in the region: the Quai, the LU, the Soufflerie, the Frac… One of the challenges for me is to connect our two cities. We have created a new festival, OP’ en famille, which will start from Angers and follow the course of the Loire with several shows to reach Nantes. We want children to build a relationship with live performance, and the family seems to us the best way to share and anchor a lasting artistic practice.
Before concluding, which composers and authors do you particularly like?
I really like the books of Cécile Coulon, Laura Vazquez, Jean Hegland, but also Christian Bobin. On the music side, I have always loved Bach, a healing music, which brings the intersection of the human and the spiritual. I also loved it Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass in the version directed by Bob Wilson, Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy. But I think that my role is not necessarily to program my favorite works!
Comments collected by Quentin Laurens, June 8, 2026, in Nantes.
Crédits photo
Portraits Alexandra Lacroix : Delphine Perrin
Grand Théâtre d’Angers : Th. Bonnet
Theater Graslin : Martin Argyroglo
