The lyrical scene is making its ecological transition. For a few years now, some houses have even offered it a place larger than a folding seat! The 17h25 collective was born from this momentum. Since 2022, it has brought together the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Paris Opera, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Lyon Opera and La Monnaie in Brussels. Violaine Charpy, Louise Leleux and Lucia Goj, respectively from the Paris National Opera and the Théâtre du Châtelet, were present at the 2024 edition of the event We are French Touch to enlighten the public on the origin, mode of operation, difficulties and ambitions of this unique program.

« All our scenes are different, explains Violaine Charpy, deputy director of investment strategy and sustainable development at the Paris National Opera. For example, the stage of the Opéra Bastille, which is more than 20 meters wide, is large and high. It is not possible to co-produce shows with all the theaters. The challenge is to be able to create sets of variable size. Then comes the question of their transport. A show can have up to four co-producers, which means a lot of trucks on the roads. "About forty years ago, opera productions were often made of canvases. Technical director at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Lucia Goj explains: " Each theatre made its own frames. At the end of a production, the canvases were stripped and transported to another theatre. Indeed, why transport all the scenery when we could transport only the decorative part? This is one of the first questions that the collective "17h25" asked itself with common sense. ". The idea was then born to design standard decorative elements that each house could have. At the end of 2022, the Lyon Opera brought the project to Alternative Verte. A grant was obtained from the Caisse des Dépôts for a three-year Research & Development project. " It is not common in the world of opera, as in other competitive sectors, to work hand in hand on a project of this type., notes Violaine Charpy. We began to realize that everyone had a different vocabulary to talk about the same things. »

The first step was then to set up a working method based on the organization of different committees (management, technical, artistic, administrative, communication, etc.) In parallel with these meetings, " labs » are also organized with all the trades: around thirty people each time, with imposed rules of conduct (“OWe don't interrupt, we don't say "but", we don't say "if", we don't judge, all ideas deserve to be stated, even the craziest ones. ") and a common vocabulary dictionary. The main novelty lies in this working method. There are already many modular products in the world of theatre. Here it is a question of finding a solution that suits the five houses, with the idea of ​​being able to disseminate it ", they explain together.

But how do we get teams involved in these issues? eco-responsibility ? " The hardest part for the teams was finding the time! But we finally see that employees invite themselves to the meetings, which shows that the atmosphere in the group is good. ", Lucia testifies. " And there were exchanges between the technical teams without anyone knowing. So we see that the project opens up boundaries, allows for exchange, brings a lot, which counterbalances the workload that such a project can represent at times. ", continues Violaine. All these discussions finally made it possible to agree on a common standard measurement (set at 200 millimeters).

From there, a giant meccano was built using steel tubes. In the tubes, holes allow the different elements to be connected. Once this prototype is validated, the goal is for each theater to have its standard structure, and even beyond the collective. This project is open source, the technical documents are royalty-free, the goal is that the standards can be reused by as many people as possible. ", she continues. The challenge is that every opera house can use it. " This summer we contacted several opera houses in Europe and around the world. Few projects of this magnitude exist. There is great interest, particularly from the Opéra Nancy, the Royal Opera House in London, and the Théâtre de l'Odéon. They have decided to try our standards on their productions. It's exciting! »