
First published in The Herald on 22 January, 2014
André Barbe is chuckling about the fact that art, for all its universality, can still be downright culturally relative. “In the UK our work is considered quirky,†he says. “In North America we’re considered very avant garde, in France we’re considered North American with culture. In Germany they see our stuff and say ‘finally! Not Regietheater!’. He gives a very Gallic shrug, as if to imply that culture critics are all daft anyway. “We don’t really care what they call us. It’s the audience that matters.â€
Barbe is a Quebecois opera designer and one half of Montreal’s Barbe & Doucet production duo; the other half is his husband, the French director Renaud Doucet. Since the pair met at L’Opéra de Montréal in 2000 they haven’t accepted any work apart. They come as a double-act or nothing, a joint brand in which design and dramaturgy are inextricable. It’s both an artistic vision and a life decision: if they were going to make their relationship last in an industry that involves long periods away from home, they decided that they would simply have to work together or not at all.
“Any couple needs a project, whether it’s a kid or an industry,†says Barbe. “We don’t have kids. This is our project.â€
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