Eric Vigié, Director of the Opéra de Lausanne

The Opéra de Lausanne knows no rest; with all of it's wanderings and restlessness, not all geographical in nature, the Opéra is resolutely moving forward. This summer we are going out to conquer the Canton by applying our savoir-faire to two dozen performances on our theatre's home turf. The “Route Lyrique 2010” will début at the Théâtre du Jorat, the beginning of July 2010 marking the return of Opéra de Lausanne to this theatre after a long absence. From there we set off on our first summer migration. This experience of decentralisation, unique for a Swiss theatre, will add another string to our already well-strung bow. It won't be long, no doubt, before our idea starts to catch on...

The opening season holds international artists and new discoveries, as has become our habit, showing our dedication to offering our audiences a mixture of rare and of famous works, such as Verdi's formidable Ballo in maschera, which kicks off our season at the Théâtre de Beaulieu.

The Salle Métropole then welcomes Italiana in Algeri, with Laurence Brownlee as Rossini's tenor of the moment, hero of the Metropolitan Opera last season. For the holiday season you will be delighted with La fille de Mme Angot, grande opérette française, directed by the actress Anémone, who signs here her first staging of an opera.

We are putting on our production of Peter and the Wolf for the next generation of little cherubs who were too small to come and see the Wolf six years ago. Plus a new production of Romeo et Juliette, which had disappeared from our stages for some time. Handel's Rinaldo is also coming to Lausanne for the first time, sung, as was the case with Giulio Cesare, by outstanding tenors and directed by the enthralling Diego Fasolis.

Take a walk with us once again for this fourth season out of the Opéra!

Maia Wentland Forte, President of Council of the Opéra de Lausanne Foundation

The Opéra de Lausanne performed off-site in 2009-2010 for the third consecutive season. Through reruns or co-productions, the Opera associated itself with prestigious theatres such as Toulouse's Théâtre du Capitole and the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux for La Périchole, or the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and the Deutsche Oper Berlin for Otello. Including dress rehearsals, more than 32000 people, like you, have followed us over the year. Many thanks to all of you !

The exceptional quality of the distributions, and more generally the remarkable work  accomplished are proof that in spite of difficult working conditions, the Opéra continues to find ingenious ways to joyfully perpetuate the tradition of an extraordinarily rich operatic art. Additionally, thanks to its dynamism and the generosity of its sponsors and patrons, the Opéra de Lausanne is getting close to the public in July by going on an operatic tour that will successfully take it across the whole Canton.

As well as these performances, we have had the great pleasure of seeing more than 5000 children and young audience members come through the doors of the theatre. They have been present at dress rehearsals and children's performances, taken guided tours, met artists or taken part in opera workshops.We are thrilled with this positive evaluation, but would also like to point out that this year's successes were made possible through great efforts from the Opéra's staff and the artists, and were achieved under difficult conditions. It is essential that we quickly move back into our opera house to astonish and delight you in the appropriate surroundings adapted to the needs of our activities.

In the mean time, and for the fourth consecutive season outside, we offer four new productions, co-produced with the Opéra Royal de Wallonie (Liège), the Teatro Municipal of Santiago, Chile, the Opera de Oviedo, and the Opéra de Marseille. We hope that you will be taken with the beauty and magic of these performances. The whole team joins me in wishing each and every one of you, great moments of joy and amazement. Let us surprise you!