 Alone/shored up/frozen in ourselves 
Through five themes, this article summarizes a long, friendly email exchange between composers Jean-Luc Fafchamps (Belgium) and Michel Gonneville (Quebec), which occurred between October 2020 and January 2021. They each speak about the other’s music, and particularly their recently written and produced operas. They compare their respective creative approaches, situating themselves in their own national contexts. Sharing experience as teachers, the authors finally evoke the responsibility of transmitting not only knowledge and a musical culture, but also the taste for and pleasure in aesthetic discovery.