An exceptional actor and sociétaire of the Comédie-Française, Didier Sandre shares with the Academy artists his experience of text, spoken voice and embodiment. A dialogue between theatre and song that extends the vocation of the spoken-sung art unique to Opéra-Comique.
Cast
Didier Sandre, with the artists of the Academy of Opéra-Comique • Mathieu Pordoy, director of musical studies
Detailed cast of the 2026-2027 Academy class to come
Biography
An actor and director born in Paris in 1946, Didier Sandre trained in the Stanislavski method before joining Catherine Dasté's young-audience company in 1968. He took part in the adventure of the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers alongside Patrice Chéreau, who directed him in Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Genet's The Screens and Marivaux's La Fausse Suivante. In 1987, Antoine Vitez entrusted him with the role of Don Rodrigue in Paul Claudel's The Satin Slipper, premiered in the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des papes — a landmark performance saluted by the Syndicat de la critique.
Over his career, he has played under the direction of Luc Bondy, Jean-Pierre Vincent, Giorgio Strehler, Hans Peter Cloos, Bernard Sobel and Christian Schiaretti, among others. In 1996 he received the Molière Award for Best Actor for Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband and in 2021 the Syndicat de la critique prize for his solo show La Messe là-bas, which he conceived around the words of Paul Claudel.
He joined the Comédie-Française in 2013 and was appointed sociétaire in 2020. There he has appeared notably in The Damned directed by Ivo van Hove, in Marivaux's Le Petit-Maître corrigé directed by Clément Hervieu-Léger and in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme directed by Valérie Lesort and Christian Hecq. A celebrated narrator, he regularly appears in works combining music and text: Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat, Debussy's The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, Beethoven's Egmont, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Grieg's Peer Gynt.
Program
A meeting between actor and singers, exploring how text, breath and gesture come together in lyric interpretation. Inspired by the spoken-sung art so central to opéra-comique.
Detailed program to come
The Academy of Opéra-Comique
A major player in lyric creation for more than three centuries, in 2023 Opéra-Comique opened an Academy dedicated to new generations of performers.
Its mission is to promote the opéra-comique genre and its specific art of interpretation, performed as close as possible to the texts and to stage action. It aspires to be a centre of artistic excellence around French singing and the art of spoken-sung performance. The Academy also aims to identify and support young French-speaking artists by encouraging them to develop fresh perspectives on lyric art and its vitality.
The disciplines of dramaturgy and costume design are also called to join this project.
