Patrice Chéreau always had a conflictual relationship with opera. On numerous occasions he said he wanted to turn his back on the genre once and for all, lamenting the overly short lead-time for rehearsals, and conditions governing revivals that were often too rigid. He felt that the opera was “a top-heavy machine” and its audiences overly conservative. Yet the confrontation with music nonetheless remained an opportunity for “fantastic work” and a source of considerable joy that he himself recognized. In 2013, the director had planned to stage Arnold Schönberg’s Moses and Aaron at the Paris Opera for the opening of the 2015 season, and also considered staging Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov.