It is “the youngest”, as nicknamed by Craig Monetti, deputy mayor, in charge of youth. To the east of Nice, in the heart of the Student House, the new room Stockfish (named after a recipe for cod à la nissarde) has just been inaugurated with “ambitious programming of a technical level of a Zenith”, assures the deputy. “There was a real need for young people to have a space designed for them,” he says, referring to the success of the first four “sold out” dates.
The opening of this concert hall with 700 standing places, which is also a humorous stage or a place of cinematographic projection, is part of a “more global desire of the town hall” to propose an “unprecedented cultural project”. “I want to reverse the trend of clichés where, when we think of Nice, we imagine the city of old people,” says Graig Monetti.
“We are fulfilling an expectation”
“I’m from Paris, I’ve always been steeped in culture, says Zayneb, 18, in the first year of speech therapy. So when I arrived here, I had a lot of preconceptions. I didn’t even know there was an opera and in any case, it wasn’t accessible to me”.
In addition to an adapted cultural offer, the price of places was one of the points to be improved, according to Julien Gaertner, director of culture at the Université Côte d’Azur (UCA). “Some establishments now leave all of their programming at 5 euros for students after our partnerships,” he notes.
For two years, but especially this year, the UCA has “a unique cultural identity with a desire for development” thanks to the integration of seven schools of art and design into the grouping of universities. The director continues: “We work so that students can attend a concert by an artist they like at a lower cost and at the same time, we make them discover other artistic worlds. We want them to go to establishments they weren’t used to going to”. This is what happened with the performance of pianist Sofiane Pamart with the Philharmonic Orchestra and two rappers at the Opera, which quickly sold out. “Now it’s my Parisian friends who tell me I’m lucky,” says Zayneb.
Get out of the walls and pick up the students
A format which is due to be “reissued next season”, assures the director of the Opera, Bertrand Rossi. Since he took over the management of the place, he “tries to renew the public while uniting the regulars”, he says, hence this partnership with the UCA. From this “dusty, a bit cheesy and very conventional” image, the students see a place where they too can find their way around with tailor-made formats, like with live electro sets in the hall. We break the codes”, exclaims with a slight smile Bertrand Rossi.
And he goes further. Revision sessions are organized at the university library where artistic teams from the Opera come to play. “We can leave our walls but also move them to put tables, chairs, wifi and allow students to attend rehearsals at the Opera while studying. »
A format that pleases
For Théo, with a law degree and from Nice, “it’s refreshing to have such an offer. I’m happy to see my city diversify. Culture is democratizing. And in addition to offering original things for us, we discover others. It will make you want to come and study here now! »
“It makes them happy, it’s within their reach financially, it can arouse vocations but above all, it stimulates intellectual curiosity”, adds Julien Gaertner, thinking of all the options offered by the device. UCArts. The director of the Opera concludes: “If it works once, let’s do twice as much next year. We’re not going to stop there! »