In 2012, musicians Benjamin El Arbi and Mathieu Franot imagined a company dedicated to the French light opera repertoire: Les Frivolités Parisiennes. A company where song, theatre and dance, from opera-comique to music hall, come together. Each season sees the production of new works and original re-creations, some of which are recorded on the Naxos, Alpha and B.Records labels.
Since 2012, Les Frivolités Parisiennes has brought to life more than fifteen works in this genre. Formed around a chamber orchestra, Les Frivolités are surrounded by singers (Philippe Broccard, Amélie Tatti, Sandrine Buendia, etc.), conductors (Dylan Corlay), stage directors (Pascal Neyron, Edouard Signolet) and specialist musicologists (Christophe Mirambeau). Keen to share this repertoire with as many people as possible, Les Frivolités Parisiennes perform in Paris and the Île-de-France region, as well as throughout France (Compiègne, Reims, Bastia, Saint-Dizier, Dreux, Le Havre, Amiens, etc.).
Les Frivolités Parisiennes has also launched two large-scale educational projects. Firstly, Les Paris Frivoles, a laboratory for training the younger generation of singers in the interpretation of the opéra-comique, opéra bouffe and musical comedy repertoires. Secondly, De Mômes et d'Opérette, a cultural action project for the very young, created to forge cultural and intergenerational links in socially diverse locations.
The Frivolités Parisiennes company is an associate artist of the Fondation Singer-Polignac, is in residence at the Théâtre Impérial - Opéra de Compiègne and directs the Opéra de Reims. It is also in residence at the Théâtre à l'italienne in Saint-Dizier, and performs regularly at the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Opéra-Comique and the Olympia in Paris.
