• For the second year running, the Orange Foundation will be supporting the Tous à l'Opéra initiative

• As part of the operation, 28 opera houses and theatres around France will open their doors to the general public on Saturday 16 February 2008.

The Orange Foundation is accompanying the French opera house initiative to expose opera to a wider audience. The initiative includes guided tours, meetings with the opera industry, discovery workshops, and the chance to sit in on rehearsals or actual performances in the following towns: Angers, Avignon, Bordeaux, Caen, Compiègne, Dijon, Limoges, Longjumeau, Lyon, Marseille, Massy, Metz, Montpellier, Nancy, Nice, Paris, Reims, Rennes, Rouen, Saint-Etienne, Toulon, Toulouse, Tours, Troyes and Vichy.

The Orange Foundation support for vocal music
The Foundation has been supporting vocal music since 1987. It contributes to the discovery of new voices, the training of young singers and the forming of vocal ensembles.
Over the past 20 years, the Foundation has supported the development of more than 90 choirs, vocal ensembles and choir schools in repertoires ranging from medieval, baroque, contemporary to world music. It accompanies every stage of musical endeavour, including research, training, production, recording and broadcasting.
The Orange Foundation also encourages opera houses conducting educational action or professional integration projects (the Operas of Rouen, Besançon, Reims and Massy), in order to increase awareness of musical creation among new audiences. In 2008-2009, the Orange Foundation will be supporting the production of Rossini's 'Journey to Reims', performed by several young soloists from around Europe in various opera houses across France

The Foundation also partners with several opera houses in order to improve access for the visually impaired by means of an audio description system providing the audience with information on the work, the décor, the movement of the artists throughout the performance and allowing them to experience the opera more fully (Bordeaux Opera, Opéra Comique and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris).