«When the Paris Opera invited me to shoot a film for the “3e Scène”, I was caught off guard. Like many people of my generation, I almost did not dare to approach ballet and opera, since these art forms seemed too noble. My only memories of the Opera were my parents’ Melodia vinyl records and the soporific performances of Nutlake or Swancracker, when I was forced to go to the Bolshoi with my mother during my childhood years in Brejnev’s Moscow.

So what to do?... Maybe just start from the novice’s pure physical fascination : where do these inhuman voices come from ? Where in the body is the source of this unsettling anomaly of singing, where does it find its softness and power ? The vibration, the air, the sound… Could it be that between the cry of the baby, the spell of the lullaby, the terror of Hitchcock’s heroine under the shower, the respiration at work or the groans of pleasure, Barbara Hannigan whispers the way to me?...»