In 1861, around sixty children were transferred from the Roquette prison in Paris to an island off the coast of Toulon. In this harsh environment, the appalling living conditions took a devastating toll, until the children themselves decided to end the system.
This true story is the basis of the opera Levant Children, with a score by Isabelle Aboulker, gentle and melancholic, tinged with the sounds of cicadas and waves. This work is about friendship and solidarity, with a tone that’s sometimes mischievous, sometimes poignant — like a War of the Buttons set to music.
More than a historical re-enactment, Pauline Laidet’s staging seeks to give voice to these forgotten children, to their courage, their dignity, and their resistance to dehumanization: “We need their voices to remember a past dangerously kept silent, and perhaps to better hear our present.”
A perfect opportunity for families to experience their first opera!