At La Monnaie, opera gets fabulous: the Drag Queen Opera Quiz returns for Pride Week

Opera and drag have always shared a taste for excess, transformation and larger‑than‑life heroines. On Wednesday 13 May, just days before Brussels Pride 2026, La Monnaie brings those worlds together again with the second edition of its Drag Queen Opera Quiz, created and hosted by Élysée Moon and accompanied this year on piano by Andrés Soler Castaño. Two sessions are scheduled, at 18:30 and 21:00, in the Fiocco Room of La Monnaie’s workshops.

That already sounds like catnip for queer Brussels. But what makes the event really interesting is that it is not just camp for camp’s sake. This year’s quiz focuses on the representation of female characters in opera, a discussion that resonates strongly with La Monnaie’s current staging of Medusa, the new opera by Lydia Steier and Iain Bell that explores violence against women through the myth of Medusa. In other words: expect glitter, yes, but also real questions.

Élysée Moon is already part of the house

Élysée Moon is not a guest parachuted into the opera world for Pride Week. At La Monnaie, she already moves through the institution as both a tenor and a guide, offering sung tours of the theatre and workshops that revisit opera history through a queer lens. That dual presence matters: she knows how to make opera accessible without flattening it, and how to bring humour into the room without treating the art form like a museum relic.

The same goes for Andrés Soler Castaño, the pianist and singer who will accompany the quiz this year. He is also connected to the house through Cassandra Koor, La Monnaie’s amateur choir, which he accompanies. So while the event feels playful and proudly offbeat, it is firmly rooted in the ecosystem of the opera house itself.

Witches, monsters, seductresses and heroines

According to La Monnaie, the Drag Queen Opera Quiz will take audiences on a light‑hearted journey through opera’s great female figures: witches, monsters, seductresses and liberated heroines, brought to life through live‑sung excerpts, anecdotes and interactive questions. That framing is especially juicy in 2026, with Medusa at the centre of the house’s programming and broader conversations around how opera has represented women as dangerous, tragic, punished or impossible.

For queer audiences, this kind of event lands in a sweet spot. It lets opera be theatrical, ridiculous and emotional all at once, while also opening a conversation about who gets to be seen as monstrous, glamorous, threatening or free. In that sense, the quiz feels very Pride‑aligned: playful on the surface, political underneath.

A perfect stop during Pride Week

The timing is no accident. Brussels Pride 2026 culminates on Saturday 16 May, but the city’s Pride Week begins days earlier with talks, performances, screenings and community events across Brussels. The Drag Queen Opera Quiz slots beautifully into that calendar, offering something for people who want a queer cultural night out before diving into the full Saturday chaos of the Pride March, Pride Village and afterparties.

It also says something about where Brussels is right now. Pride in the capital is no longer confined to bars and clubs; it spills into opera houses, museums, public spaces and neighbourhood venues. Seeing La Monnaie open its workshops to a drag‑led, queer‑framed event during Pride Week is part of that broader shift, and a welcome one.

Why this matters for Ket readers

For Ket’s audience, the appeal is obvious: this is one of those rare Brussels events that manages to be smart, queer, funny and institutionally subversive at the same time. You can come as an opera nerd, a drag lover, a curious date, or someone who simply wants to see what happens when a major cultural house loosens its corset a little.

And because the evening is rooted in questions around female representation, rather than just “opera trivia,” it avoids becoming a gimmick. It turns the quiz format into a door: a way into conversations about gender, performance and power that fit perfectly into the lead‑up to Pride weekend.

Useful links

Brussels Pride 2026 – official site

Drag Queen Opera Quiz – La Monnaie

La Monnaie calendar

Resonances around Medusa – La Monnaie

La création de “Medusa” – La Monnaie

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