The Paris Opera, the FEHAP (Fédération des Etablissements Hospitaliers et d’Aide à la Personne privés solidaires) and the Crédit Agricole Solidarité Développement Foundation have decided to support the EHPAD residents (Residential Care Homes) by bringing art and culture into their daily lives, in particular through VR headset devices specially adapted for the elderly. 

Thanks to the generous support of the Crédit Agricole Solidarité Développement Foundation, the Paris Opera is launching for the first time an initiative to support our elders, putting at the disposal of about 40 care homes (EHPAD) of the FEHAP virtual reality headsets supplied and operated by the VR4GOOD company, in order to allow them to enjoy a rich and immersive experience with opera and ballet extracts and specially designed VR contents. Implemented in spring 2021, this project will give access to a 360° visit of the Palais Garnier and the Bastille Opera - guided by the resident artists poetically wandering in the venues – and to the screening of two ballets, Le Parc and Notre-Dame de Paris - filmed in March and April 2021. In addition to this action, meetings will be organized in the EHPAD with the Opera artists.
The musicians of the Orchestra, wishing to offer a preview of the project, have organized a discussion and a musical moment at the Ferrari care home –administrated by the Ordre de Malte France. On March 5^th, Thibault Vieux (violin), Cyril Ghestem (violin), Etienne Tavitian (viola) and Aurélien Sabouret (cello) have performed there Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quartet n°14, op. 131. 

“The Paris Opera’s mission is to welcome a wide audience in its auditoriums: but we must also seek every opportunity to reach the people who cannot come to us. We set to enrich our broadcasting media to facilitate access to the works staged at the Paris Opera to all the spectators who are not familiar with our halls or are living too far from our venues, forging new bonds with these audiences.
The broadcast of our performances –whether in movie theatres, on TV, on the Internet and today on our newly launched digital platform “l’Opéra chez soi”- has become essential; but thanks to the VR, we can now offer an augmented experience, even closer to what can be lived in the auditorium, which stay to us the ultimate experience. Thanks to the support of the Crédit Agricole Solidarité et Développement Foundation, we will soon be able to bring the emotions of live performances to our elders, who are especially suffering of isolation during this pandemic.”
Alexander Neef, Director of the Paris Opera

Today and through this action, the Paris Opera wishes to bring an answer to the COVID-19 crisis; a crisis revealing each person’s need for culture. We are more and more convinced that the Opera has the mission to make its performances available to every audience.