The Paris Opera “has suspended its partnership with the Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine pending feedback from the audits and collections of testimonies that the Maîtrise has undertaken”declared the institution, questioned by AFP.
The director of the Master’s degree, Gaël Darchen, 54, is the target of five complaints, filed by five women, for sexual and moral harassment, and sexual assault for one of them. Charges that he disputes. An investigation was opened and entrusted to the Brigade for the Repression of Personal Delinquency (BRDP), according to the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office.
Created in 1985, supported by the department, the Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine (650 singers aged 5 to 30, divided into 12 ensembles) has been the children’s choir of the Paris National Opera since 1995.
Consequence: the opera “The Magic Flute”, on display at the Opéra Bastille in November, no longer includes, in its cast, children from this choir, but children from the German ensemble Aurelius Sängerknaben Calw, according to the press kit sent to AFP.
The Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (TCE), for its part, is hosting two productions this season (“Dialogues des carmelites”, “Le Chevalier à la rose”) in which the “Unikanti” young adult choir usually directed by Gaël Darchen takes part: the TCE indicated to AFP that it was maintaining its collaboration with the choir to show “its support”, but “without the presence” of its leader within the theater.
According to Radio France and Le Canard Enchainé, which revealed the facts, the women accusing the director of mastery were all adults at the time of the facts denounced. They reported around twenty testimonies, notably from former Master’s students, included in the file.
Contacted by AFP, the Master detailed that it had implemented “several actions since July”: “removal of the director of the Master’s degree”, “launch of an internal audit”, “information on the existence of a listening unit”.
She further stated “maintain relationships of trust with all of its artistic, institutional and financial partners associated with the actions implemented” and assured that “the masters are fully involved in the preparation of future shows which will take place from the end of November, regardless of the partner”.
