Joséphine Baker revived at the Palais Garnier

Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine arrives at the Palais Garnier as a work positioned between opera, musical theatre and performance. Created by composer Tyshawn Sorey with texts by Claudia Rankine and directed by Peter Sellars, it takes the figure of Joséphine Baker as its starting point while avoiding a conventional biographical form. The structure is that of a song cycle. Materials associated with Baker’s repertoire are reworked and combined with spoken texts and instrumental passages, forming a composition that blends written and improvised elements. Jazz, spirituals, contemporary music and references to music hall coexist within a hybrid language. At the centre of the work is soprano Julia Bullock, whose interpretation of Joséphine Baker is not based on reconstruction but on inquiry. Her performance explores the distance between public image and private experience, foregrounding tensions related to identity, representation and freedom. The voice becomes the primary dramaturgical element, moving across different registers without settling into a fixed style. Bullock, an American soprano active across opera and interdisciplinary projects, has developed a body of work that connects music with social and political questions. In this context, Perle Noire operates as a present-day reflection on Baker rather than a retrospective tribute. Sellars’s staging avoids historical reconstruction and works within a stripped-down space in which musicians and performers share the stage. The ensemble remains visible, contributing to the action and reinforcing the collective dimension of the piece. The work focuses on what lies outside official narratives. Joséphine Baker emerges as a complex figure: artist, public icon, activist, but also an individual shaped by contradiction and tension. Perle Noire does not attempt to resolve these elements, but to make them perceptible.