Soprano files sexual assault complaint against French opera houses

Soprano files sexual assault complaint against French opera houses

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norman lebrecht

August 23, 2020

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.

 

Comments

  • V. Lind says:

    MoiAussi comes to Yurp!

    Atta girl — straight to the cops. This could be a corker.

  • Bone says:

    Making the criminal complaint to the police is courageous. Hope she gets the justice she deserves.

  • MT says:

    Brava to this brave woman!

  • John Rook says:

    A couple of clicks can reveal who it might have been. That’s actually quite dangerous, don’t you think?

    • V. Lind says:

      Why? She will presumably have named him to the unresponsive management, and now to the gendarmerie — and the management may have tipped him off.

      Good luck to her. This is pretty specific, so even the usual crowd of “false allegation” alleg-ators of SD will surely be inclined to believe her.

    • RW2013 says:

      Could be any one of the four male singers.

  • Tooth fairy says:

    Participating in a degenerate opera, and then wondering that things are not civil, clean and respectful…

    • Bruce says:

      Yes. Because whoever it was would have behaved perfectly if it had been …trying to think of an opera where everyone behaves themselves throughout… hmmm…

      Well then! It’s her fault for being an opera singer in the first place!

  • Sue Sonata Form says:

    Where’s the money? Give me the money.

    Didn’t see that coming…!!!

  • Karl says:

    Bill Clinton called these things “bimbo eruptions”.

    • Why keep bringing up the past when the present is so terrible says:

      What did Agent Orange call his one of his paramours? Oh yeah, “horse face.” Much better…

      • John Rook says:

        No, that was Bloomberg.

        • Why says:

          No, Bloomberg called women “horse-faced lesbians.” Agent Orange called Stormy Daniels (the porn star he was having an affair with shortly after Melania gave birth to their son) “horseface.” Because, after all, the most important quality a woman can have is to be attractive to easily-threatened, tiny men.

  • Karl says:

    OperaWire says this:

    “Briot, who performed the title role, claims that her partner onstage had repeatedly taken advantage of the two scenes of intimacy between their two characters. After the initial performances at the l’Opéra-Comique in the fall 2019, the production continued at the Opéra de Rennes on January 15, 16, and 18, 2020. Per Briot’s claims, during the second performance in the run the sexually aggressive behaviour took place.”
    https://operawire.com/french-soprano-chloe-briot-files-a-complaint-for-the-alleged-sexual-harassment/

    The guy was ACTING the part. I guess we just have to have staged opera with no acting now.

  • Guest says:

    Just when we thought the #metoo feeding frenzy was over, its baaaaaack!

    • Bruce says:

      Yes… just when we thought men had stopped sexually harassing women. Because everyone totally thought that was going to happen, right? /eyeroll

      As Julie Christie’s idealistic boyfriend says toward the beginning of Doctor Zhivago: “You’ll see. People will be different after the revolution.”

  • Another orchestral musician says:

    More shocking news on the same topic, it looks that sexual harassment will never stop or what??? ( it’s in Danish but understandable with Google Translate )
    https://www.information.dk/indland/2020/11/musikere-fortaeller-hverdag-sexchikane-mobning-dr-symfoniorkestret?lst_frnt

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