Soprano files sexual assault complaint against French opera houses

The international French soprano Chloé Briot has written a statement in La Lettre du musicien, saying she wants ‘to put an end to the rule of silence which reigns in the opera.’

Chloé, who has performed at La Monnaie, Dutch National Opera and London’s Southbank Centre, says she was subjected to repeated sexual assaults by a singer colleague on the stages of the Opéra-Comique in Paris and at the operas of Rennes and Nantes. The assaults continued over a period of weeks and months in an unnamed production – apparently Francesco Filidei’s new work L’Inondation – which warned audiences that ‘some scenes may offend the sensitivity of the public and in particular the youngest.’

Chloé says the singer groped her breast, made motions of oral sex and said he wanted to hurt her. He repeated these assaults in rehearsals and performance. Complaints that she made to the director of the performance and of the opera houses were not acted upon.

She has now filed a criminal complaint with the police at Besancon.