Katia Ledoux, the French Carmen who awakens Viennese opera

LETTER FROM VIENNA

From the start of the performance, the tone is set. “As smoking is prohibited on stage, the staging had to be adapted. But fortunately the representation of femicide remains authorized”warns with irony the voice of the Dutch opera director Lotte de Beer, before the curtain rises CarmenThursday October 3, at the Volksoper in Vienna. The audience in the Austrian capital laughed.

In the first scene of this version of the famous opera by Georges Bizet (1838-1875), the French mezzo-soprano Katia Ledoux, who plays the title role, refuses to comply with her work on the assembly line at the Sevillian tobacco factory . She constantly escapes from the frame, until the apotheosis of the final scene of her assassination by Don José, her abandoned lover. In this version, the chorus is grouped in false boxes recreated on stage and jubilant at the death of Carmen, reflecting back to the real audience its supposed greed for the death of this free woman.

“The idea is to show this fascination in the opera world with seeing women die. It’s stupid to what extent femicide is totally normalized in opera”explains Katia Ledoux, receiving The World a few days after the premiere. The performance was variously appreciated by the Austrian press which, in essence, criticized Lotte de Beer for being too “woke”. “I see myself a lot in this dangerous audience”however, warns the singer, being surprised that some could have taken this mise en abîme as “an insult when it’s just weird this fascination with opera heroines who die.”

At 34, Katia Ledoux has become a Viennese sensation, as much for her widely recognized talent as for her feminist commitments which break with a local opera scene that has remained quite conservative. “The Viennese public is extremely passionate and takes the time to write us letters, I believe that it is only here that it happens like this”smiles this woman with an imposing presence and a deeply communicative laugh.

Atypical journey

After joining the Vienna Volksoper troupe in 2022, she was noticed for the first time in February 2023 for having agreed at the last minute to sing, in addition to her role of Venus, the role of Orpheus in the opera of Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), Orpheus in the Underworldreplacing a colleague who fell ill. A rare performance. For her first role as a prima donna, she plays Carmen in a large black costume which deliberately moves away from the alluring outfits often adorned with Bizet’s heroine.

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