By reinterpreting the character of Carmen from a feminist perspective (the opera opens with street harassment and ends with femicide), Jeanne Desoubeaux gives this popular figure a musical and collective makeover in this open-air touring performance. Love meets death in three acts and three locations. With a joyful energy that immerses the spectators cum witnesses, this has the feel of a popular festival celebrating both the power of Bizet’s melodies and their need for a contemporary social reading.
BIOGRAPHY
> JEANNE DESOUBEAUX / MAURICE ET LES AUTRES (France)
Jeanne Desoubeaux was born in Caen, and studied the harpsichord, dance and theatre at the regional conservatory. After a master’s degree in Theatre Studies at Sorbonne Nouvelle, and an acting course at the Paris Conservatoire du Centre, she began her career as an actress. In 2015, she turned to directing, founding her musical company, Maurice et les autres, in Limoges, with Igor Bouin as musical director. After Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (2015), Où je vais la nuit based on Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (2018), Vincent Guédon’s Ce qu’on attend de moi (2018), Don Quichotte (2019), Carmen (2022) and Louise Bertin’s and Victor Hugo’s Esmeralda (2023), she will be directing Handel’s Orlando at Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris) in 2025. The company has partnered with La vie brève – Théâtre de l’Aquarium (2022 to 2024) and the Limoges Théâtre de l’Union CDN, and has been working in theatre and music for ten years, producing popular shows that can be adapted to different territories and all audiences.
