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‘I feel naked in front of the entire world’: Olympics opening ceremony composer Victor le Masne

He started in French electro. Now he’s musical director of the Olympics. He talks about playing Macron his club-banger anthem, defying the far right and sampling workers on Notre Dame

He had recently left his band, the indie electro duo Housse de Racket, and was beginning a new chapter, working as a producer and a composer for progressively bigger French artists: Kavinsky, Justice’s Gaspard Augé, and Juliette Armanet. Photograph: BBCThis moment marked the beginning of the live event, which consisted of 12 tableaux featuring Lady Gaga, Céline Dion, the music of composers Rameau, Ravel, Saint-Saëns and Satie, French rapper Rim’k, Juliette Armanet singing John Lennon, and long time Le Masne collaborator and mercurial trickster Philippe Katerine, who popped up as a smurf-like blue Dionysus (and ended up in the middle of a culture war, as some accused the section of parodying the Last Supper). “I’m working with worlds that don’t classically belong together, combining the featured artists with specific French ensembles, in surprising ways.” During the tableau titled Egalité, French-Malian Muslim pop-star Aya Nakamura and her retinue of dancers dressed in gold Dior feather outfits were backed by a marching band in military regalia.

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