Audio description

Since 2015, a successful collaboration was established between the Association Écoute Voir and the Opéra de Lausanne. As a result, operas such as L’enfant et les sortilèges (2015), La vie parisienne (2016), Le chanteur de Mexico (2017) and Orphée et Eurydice (2019) have been audio-described to our wider audience.

An audio-description of performances allows visually impaired and blind people to attend a show in the best possible conditions and independently. The audience is provided with headphones where they hear the voice of an audio-descriptor who describes the visual elements of the show between dialogues (change of scenery, costumes, entry and exit of characters, movements and facial expressions). The descriptors are placed in a closed control room and follows the performance live.

Before the performance, visually impaired and blind audience members can take part in a tactile tour of the stage. This is a unique opportunity to imagine the staging, to discover the volume of a prop’s shape, position, feel the texture of a costume and even get familiar with the voices of the characters, if singers are present. This sensory journey is also led by the audio-descriptors.