The story of “Ténor” is that of Antoine, young parisian suburbanite who is studying accounting without much conviction and who divides his time between the rap battles he practices with talent and his job as a sushi delivery boy.
During a run to the Opéra Garnier, his path crosses that of Mrs. Loyseau, singing teacher in the venerable institution, who detects in Antoine a raw talent to hatch. Despite his lack of lyrical culture, Antoine is fascinated by this form of expression and lets himself be convinced follow the teaching of Mrs. Loyseau. Antoine has no choice but to lie to his family, his friends and the whole city for whom opera is a bourgeois thing, far from their world.
For his first film as a solo director, Claude Zidi plays on the contrasts between rap and opera, but also between the suburbs and the Opéra Garnier. His bet? Don’t especially not fall into clichés.
For the main roles, Claude Zidi called upon MB14 and Michele Laroque. If the latter is more than confirmed in the world of cinema, this was not the case for MB14. But very quickly, from the first tests, Claude Zidi and Michèle Laroque knew that “it was him” that was needed.