Today the world is very different from the 1920s when L'Enfant et les Sortilèges was written.

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In the scene with the teacup and teapot, we took the decision to make changes the original text written by Colette. In the original text, the teacup sings almost-nonsense syllables intended to sound like Chinese, and this fake-Chinese is taken up by the teapot towards the end of the scene. 

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‘Below the surface’ of this nonsense text is a layer of meaning which, to French listeners, may just about be apparent; the syllables are just close enough to real French words that one can pick out the underlying message: “since you don’t understand this, it will always sound Chinese”. This hidden message from Colette, in the context of the time in which it was written (when the prosperous Parisian public was fascinated by the exoticism of all things from the East), skewers this fashionable objectification of Chinese culture.

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We took the decision that, for a production in 2020, this presentation of a singer performing in nonsense-Chinese was not respectful, regardless of the fact that the original intention was not to take aim at Chinese culture, but Parisian high society's fascination with it. We wanted our production to speak to absolutely everyone, and not be seen to be belittling any culture with a phoney imitation of the language.

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We commissioned a new text in Mandarin from poet Victor Fong, to be sung to the existing music. The meaning of this new text closely mirrors the hidden meaning of Colette’s original text:

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Hey you - what the heck are you doing?
Since you can’t understand,
(You will never, ever, in your whole life understand)
It will always sound like Chinese.

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For a copy of the new text and its setting to music, please contact VOPERA directly.

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We consulted widely, with people outside our production team and from different cultural backgrounds, who brought professional expertise in this important and complicated matter of how to present different cultures in pieces of performance art written in the previous decades and centuries. In general terms, this is an ongoing matter, and we as creatives must continue to try to find the right answers to these important questions - there is always a balance to be struck between serving the authors’ original intentions and presenting productions which are a reflection of the values we hold today.