With Maria Republica, François Paris fulfills a quarter-century-old dream of writing an opera. It was in 1991, while still a student at the Paris Conservatory, that the composer met Augustin Gómez-Arcos and told him of his intention to write an opera based on his novel. The writer died in 1998, but thanks to the bold and ambitious artistic policy pursued by Jean-Paul Davois at the head of Angers Nantes Opéra, the project is now coming to fruition on stage at the Théâtre Graslin in Nantes.