Step behind the scenes of an opera like no other.
The young voices of the Maîtrise de Radio France take on a challenge: bringing Actéon, a baroque masterpiece by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, to life under the direction of the Paris Opera Academy.
This documentary follows the artistic and human journey of this unique production, from the first rehearsals to the final performance. Through the curious, focused, and awe-struck eyes of the young singers, viewers discover the rigor, passion, and magic of opera.
Blending educational workshops, encounters with artists, and an exploration of the baroque world, this film speaks to children, teenagers, and adults alike—anyone eager to understand how opera can become a collective, vibrant, and accessible adventure.
A musical journey where youth breathe new life into an ancient masterpiece—with modernity, energy, and emotion.

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Behind the scenes of Actéon

Behind the scenes of Actéon_VI

VLA_8895

Discover the young audiences programme

Step behind the scenes of an opera like no other. 
The young voices of the Maîtrise de Radio France take on a challenge: bringing Actéon, a baroque masterpiece by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, to life under the direction of the Paris Opera Academy. 
Th

the documentary about the production

In her music, Emmanuelle Da Costa gives an essential role to the micro and macroscopic evolution of sound matter and its influence on overall form. She explores a wide range of dynamics and instrumental techniques, from saturation to almost imperceptible shudders of sound. She collaborates with various ensembles, festivals and institutions: the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, the Ensemble intercontemporain, Icarus vs Muzak, the Maîtrise de Radio France, Canticum Novum, the Présence Compositrices festival, the Choeur et Orchestre des Jeunes - l'Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Espace culturel de Chaillol, the Superspectives festival, European Patent Office, Mômeludies... Also trained as a choral conductor, she places particular emphasis on choral singing in her creative work. She has received commissions from the Maîtrise de Radio France, the Maîtrise de la Loire, the Maîtrise de Toulouse, the Institut Français d'Art Choral, the choirs Syllepse, Dulci Jubilo, Artmilles, Festyvocal, Voices 21C... For the years 2024-2025, she is composer-in-residence with the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain conducted by Bruno Mantovani. This residency will give rise to two creations for large ensemble: Les Dentelles du Cygne (May 24) and World Lines (co-commission: Les Dentelles du Cygne (May 24) and World Lines (co-commission Grame CNCM, February 25). She also composes two pocket operas for children's voices. Le Château des Carpathes (libretto by Henri Dalem, commissioned by the Maîtrise de la Loire), which in 2022 was awarded a grant from the French Ministry of Culture for the writing of an original musical work. And Actéon ou le triomphe de la vacuité, created in November 2024 for the Maîtrise de Radio France on a libretto by Samuel Muller, conducted by Morgan Jourdain and directed by Victoria Sitjà at the Amphithéâtre Olivier Messiaen of the Opéra Bastille (co-production Radio France / Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris). She is also interested in the performing arts, and enjoys encounters with other creators: writers, performers, actors, visual artists, dancers... She collaborates regularly with Compagnie Danceflore and performer/dancer Julie Debellis (shows #REINES, or Résonance avec le Vivant). In 2023, she created Ariane, convocations with Danceflore Cie and Compagnie Nomade, based on a play written by Juliette Bargès (artistic residency at Le Magasin / Chok Théâtre). In 2021-22, she won the Mécénat Musical Société Générale with the show Minotaure (Pierre- Louis Besson, performance painting / Lisa Heute, composition and accordion / Léa Cointet, cello). Emmanuelle also composes for the image and collaborates notably with video artists Léa Ducos (Olympiades - FID Marseille and FIAC 2015 selection, Without Pictures and Conversation? - FID Marseille 2016, Wuhan Design Biennale China) and Élise Meunier (Étude numéro un, Frac PACA 2017). She studied instrumental and vocal composition with Pascale Jakubowski at the Saint-Étienne Conservatoire, electroacoustic composition with Diego Losa, and choral conducting with Maëlle Defoin-Gaudet, and obtained a DEM in all three disciplines. She also holds a Master's degree in musicology from the Université Jean Monnet in Saint-Étienne. She went on to study composition at the CNSMD in Lyon with David Chappuis and Luca Antignani, where she obtained a Master's degree in musical creation. Her compositional thinking also developed thanks to the masterclasses and academies she attended along the way, with Stefano Gervasoni, Florentine Mulsant, Francesco Filidei, Xu yi, Robert Piéchaud, Guillaume Connesson and others... The transmission of contemporary music and teaching are important aspects of her work. She holds a Certificat d'Aptitude in instrumental and vocal composition, and is involved in a variety of activities: teaching musical creation until June 2022 at the Maîtrise de la Loire, workshops in elementary school and at the Conservatoire de Roanne as part of the Le Son des Mômes project, “La Maîtrise enchante les bébés” at the Pouponnière du Département de la Loire, improvisation workshops at the Festival Présence Compositrices, and residencies with the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain at the CRR Massenet in Saint-Étienne. In 2024, she is also a professor of contemporary music history at the Université Jean Monnet.

After studying music history at the Sorbonne and the Conservatoire National de Région de Saint-Maurdes-Fossés, art history at the École du Louvre, and harpsichord, Samuel Muller turned his attention to early music. In addition to his research activities, he is director of the Brussels-based ensemble Dulcinea, specializing in 17th- and 18th-century French music, and regularly works with musicians, singers and actors on theatrical and musical stage projects. At the same time, he works with theater and puppetry, as well as directing. In 2002, he directed the ensemble Les Corbeaux et les Hybous, made up of four singers and a lute, working on dramaturgy (theater, music, poetry) in the Baroque period. He has worked regularly as a vocal coach for the companies Comédiens & Cie (La Jalousie du Barbouillé, Le Sicilien, le Mariage Forcé, la Flûte Enchantée, La Nuit des Rois) and Viva la Commedia (Cyrano de Bergerac, Don Juan). After working with Benoît Richter and Jean-Paul Denizon for the past twenty-five years, he is above all an actor, director and author, including: Jacques Jouet's Physique de l'Interrogatoire, Le Grand Cirque Philosophique Barberini (author and director, Festival Les Malins Plaisirs de Montreuil-sur-Mer), Le Styx (author and director, Festival Les Malins Plaisirs de Montreuil-sur-Mer), Miranda, la Princesse Naufragée (director, Paris). At the same time, he trained in Baroque theater with Jean-Denis Monory and La Fabrique à Théâtre, and has since created and performed Les Dieux Déguisés (director, Ensemble Pythagore), Les Fables de la Fontaine (author, director, actor, Paris), and La Danseuse & le Poète (author, director, actor, Ivry). He also created Orphée XIII (Author, director, Gabriel Fauré secondary school, Paris). He also works with the Fondation Royaumont on the Babel project (Les Cris de Paris). In 2015, he created his own company, Le Théâtre de Thélème, based in Touraine, with which he tackles lyrical or musical shows (La Nostalgie du Paradis) and contemporary creations. The same year, he began his collaboration with the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris, where he created Quand vient la nuit (M. Jourdain, 2015) and L'Homme qui ne savait pas mourir (text and staging, 2016). In 2018, he created and directed for the Paris Opera Le Chemin Secret... From 2019 to 2022, he was artistic director of Générale des Mômes (formerly Compagnie du Petit Monde), based in Touraine. As author and director, he created Bingo Baraka! and Monsieur Blanc, followed by La Promenade de Flaubert, based on the book by Antonin Louchard (2022). In 2022, he began his collaboration with Compagnie Quart de Soupir (dir. Christopher Lacassagne) with the production of Lalilo for young audiences. The same year, he wrote the text for Actéon, a choral opera set to music by Emmanuelle Da Costa for Radio-France.

Since its creation in 1946, the Maîtrise de Radio France has taken up the challenge of helping children grow in music through an exceptional artistic experience. A permanent fixture at Radio France alongside the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique and the Choeur de Radio France, the Maîtrise is regularly called upon by other ensembles such as London's Philharmonia Orchestra, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and is conducted by such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Andris Nelsons, Susanna Mälkki, Kent Nagano, Simone Young and Leonardo García Alarcón. Through its own concert seasons, the Maîtrise is committed to showcasing the choral repertoire for children's voices. Highly committed to the promotion of contemporary music and new works, the Maîtrise pursues a deliberate policy of commissioning scores, notably as part of its educational activities aimed at developing choral practice throughout France. The Maîtrise has also premiered works by Peter Eötvös, Betsy Jolas, Nico Muhly, Héloïse Werner, Esa Pekka Salonen, Diana Soh... At its two sites in Paris and Bondy, the Maîtrise de Radio France has established itself as a school of openness and excellence. The school offers an intensive curriculum including choir, singing, musical training, harmony, piano, Alexander technique, bodywork and stage performance. Students are recruited after national auditions for the Paris site, and in Bondy specifically in the city's northern district (this site was opened in 2007 as part of the priority education network). All Maîtrise students benefit from totally free tuition, from elementary school through to the baccalaureate. Today, the Maîtrise has almost 150 students on two sites, under the artistic and pedagogical direction of Sofi Jeannin since 2008. The Maîtrise de Radio France is generously supported by Aline Foriel-Destezet, the BNP Paribas Foundation, the ADP Group Foundation, the Orange Foundation, the Fondation Safran pour l'insertion and the Cercle des amis de la Fondation Musique et Radio - Institut de France.

Maxime Echardour graduated from the percussion, zarb and piano classes at the CNR de Rueil-Malmaison, where he was introduced to traditional and contemporary practices by Gaston Sylvestre. He went on to study with Jean Geoffroy at the CNSMD in Lyon, then at the Amsterdam Conservatory. A member of L'Instant Donné since 2003, he has deepened his knowledge of the contemporary repertoire with this ensemble, and has taken part in numerous premieres (Gérard Pesson, Frédéric Pattar, Stefano Gervasoni...). He is also involved in various ensembles: with the Khaps ensemble, a quartet bringing together musicians from Africa, Japan and France, he explores traditional music and performs on all three continents. His attraction to Mandingo music led him to take balafon lessons with a griot in Senegal. Other projects have led him to take part in programs with KammerKonzert Holland, Opéra de Lyon, EOC, Ensemble Hostel Dieu, Ensemble A lma Viva, Ensemble InterContemporain and the Motus acousmatic collective. From 2001 to 2011, with the Trio de Bubar, a group of 3 percussionists, he conducted research into original forms of musical expression. Since 2015, he has performed Laurent Dupont's L'avoir, ôde chantée au savon in France, Germany, Austria, Holland, Canada, Brazil... Recently, with the Alma Viva ensemble, he performed Kamchatka, a chamber opera by Daniel d'Adamo at the Théâtre Colón in Buenos Aires and the Théâtre Dunois in Paris.

Maxime Echardour

Ruta Lenciauskaite, born in Lithuania, studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music, where she obtained her Master's degree in piano solo and accompaniment. She completed her training at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (Finland) and then joined the Atelier Lyrique de l'Opéra national de Paris. Since then, Ruta Lenciauskaite has worked regularly as a guest vocal conductor and language coach at the Opéra de Paris with such great conductors as V. Jurowsky, Ph. Jordan, I. Metzmacher, M. Plasson, M. Schønwandt, S. Cambreling, Sir M. Elder, Susanna Mälkki and others. Ruta also works for the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra de Rouen and Opéra de Limoges. She also collaborates with Théâtre T&M Paris, Théâtre de la Monnaie (Brussels), Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and takes part in numerous projects with the Philharmonie de Paris. In addition to the classical repertoire, she is often involved in the creation of contemporary works. Winner of several international competitions as soloist or accompanist, she has given numerous concerts in Lithuania, Finland, Australia, Germany, Italy, Greece, Latvia, USA and France. She performs regularly in chamber music, as well as in recitals of lieder and mélodies; most recently at the Amphithéâtre Bastille, Théâtre de l'Athénée Louis Jouvet, Auditorium du Louvre, Palais Garnier, Villa Médicis (Rome), Victoria Hall (Geneva), Théâtre du Capitole (Toulouse), Spivey Hall (Atlanta, USA).

Rūta Lenčiauskaite

After studying musicology and conducting, Morgan Jourdain was appointed conductor of the Maîtrise de Radio France when the Bondy site was created. Curious to renew the choral repertoire for equal voices, he promotes the discovery of forgotten works (Amy Beach's Peter Pan, Carl Reinecke's Snow White, Nathaniel Clifford Page's Alice in Wonderland) and supports musical creation in diverse aesthetics (Benjamin Dupé's Du choeur à l'ouvrage, Vincent Manac'h's Chansons de la pointe, Michel Petrossian's Le chant d'Archak). Committed to the artistic and pedagogical development of his students, he involves them in multidisciplinary projects that combine vocal practice with dance (Thierry Machuel's The Invisible Kingdom, choreographed by Martin Grandperret), theater (Isabelle Aboulker's Olympe la rebelle) and instrumental practice (the piano in Changement de programme, or the percussion in Quel Cirque! which he composed especially for the Maîtrise). He regularly collaborates with the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris, for which he directs several shows: L'homme qui ne savait pas mourir (directed by Samuel Müller), Le monde n'est pas comme toujours (directed by Vladimir Cruells) and Deep River, which he also directs. Alongside these activities, he composes and arranges music for various ensembles: le Poème harmonique, le Jeune choeur de Paris, l'Ensemble Perspectives, le Choeur de l'Armée française... In 2014, he reconstructed and completed Johann Sebastian Bach's Trauermusik BWV 244a, recorded by Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion. For Les Cris de Paris and their conductor Geoffroy Jourdain, he wrote the music for several original shows: Lalala - Opéra en chansons, a stage work entirely a cappella; Karaoké, for singers and recorded tape (directed by Benjamin Lazar); and Tristan et Iseut, for singers and everyday objects (directed by Nicolas Vial). Attentive to the democratization and popularization of choral practices, since 2019 he has been editorial project manager of the VO!X, ma chorale interactive digital portal, initiated and supported by Radio France, which aims to offer everyone musical tools and supports to facilitate the practice of choral singing on a daily basis, throughout the country. In September 2019, he will be appointed deputy musical director of the Maîtrise de Radio France.

Trained at the Académie de l'Opéra national de ParisVictoria Sitjà trained as an actor and director at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris, under Luc Bondy and Jean Bellorini, and then in St. Petersburg, where she worked with Lev Dodin. In 2017, she launched the trilogy Nostalgie et Héritage, which brings together her productions of Chekhov's Three Sisters, Lagarce's Juste la fin du monde and Kafka's Lettre au père, presented at the Théâtre Gérard Philipe in Saint-Denis. Her multifaceted career has enriched her approach to the stage, with positions as stage manager, props mistress, translator and rehearsal director, notably for Isabelle Adjani and Amira Casar.She has also worked with internationally renowned directors such as Robert Wilson, Lydia Steier and Deborah Warner. In September 2021, Victoria Sitjà will join the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris, where she will create two workshops for artists in residence: Après la fatigue du jour, a work on Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, and Looking for Bernstein, a tribute to the illustrious composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. Since then, she has collaborated regularly with the Opéra national de Paris on numerous productions and projects, including this season's children's show Actéon in partnership with the Maîtrise de Radio France.At the Opéra national de Paris (Amphithéâtre Olivier Messiaen): Après la fatigue du jour, 2022; Looking for Bernstein, 2023; Actéon, 2024

With a passion for literature and art history, Lucie Mazières discovered theater at the Université Paris VII, where she graduated. She trained in set and costume design at the Institut d'études théâtrales de la Sorbonne Nouvelle and at the École Duperré with Claire Chavanne and Sylvie Skinazi. In 2019, she assists Alexandre de Dardel in the set design of Stéphane Braunschweig's Oncle Vania at the Théâtre des Nations in Moscow. In the same year, she collaborated with Philippe Quesne on the French Pavilion at the Quadriennale de scénographie in Prague.In 2023, she was dramaturgical assistant and artistic collaborator for Garance Bonotto's Pink Machine (Compagnie 1% artistique) at the Centre dramatique national de Rouen and on tour. She also designed the set for Janice Szczypawka's Des gosses at the Théâtre de la Maison d'Elsa.Since 2020, Lucie Mazières has collaborated with Victoria Sitjà as set and costume designer for Après la fatigue du jour and Looking for Bernstein at the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris. More recently, she designed the sets for Marie Cœur-de-truie by Mathilde Courcol-Rozès and Dégât des eaux by the Compagnie 1% artistique.In the 2024-2025 season, she will design the sets and costumes for bonnes, directed by Louise Herrero, at the Théâtre L'Étoile du Nord and the Théâtre de la Tempête, and, at the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris, the sets and costumes for Actéon (with the Maîtrise de Radio France), directed by Victoria Sitjà, and the sets for L'Isola disabitata, directed by Simon Valastro.At the Opéra national de Paris (Amphithéâtre Olivier Messiaen): Après la fatigue du jour, 2022; In Search of Bernstein, 2023; Actéon, 2024.

Louis Sady trained in 2015 at the Centre national de formation professionnelle aux techniques du spectacle, a work-study program at the Comédie de Caen, CDN de Normandie-Caen. There he learned the professions of technician, lighting designer and stage manager. In addition to his professional training, he also studied music, specializing in electronic music composition. In 2017, he became a lighting designer, sound designer and stage manager for various theater and opera productions. Since 2020, he has collaborated as lighting designer with Victoria Sitjà and Lucie Mazières on Après la fatigue du jour and Looking for Bernstein for the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris.After designing the lighting for Garance Bonotto's show Pink Machine in 2023, he continues his collaboration with the Compagnie 1% artistique as sound and lighting designer for the show Dégâts des eaux. In 2024, he continues touring with his own musical creation, performed live in the show Paysage(s), directed by Aurélie Édeline. During the 2024-2025 season, Louis Sady will design the lighting for Actéon, directed by Victoria Sitjà, at the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris.At the Opéra national de Paris (Amphithéâtre Olivier Messiaen): Après la fatigue du jour, 2022; In Search of Bernstein, 2023; Actéon, 2024.

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Discover the young audiences programme

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Creatives

Discover the young audiences programme