Since then, it’s been the most performed opera in the United States and a classic Christmas celebration around the world.
Amahl, a crippled young shepherd, tells his mother that he saw a very bright star in his dream. Tired of the boy’s imagination, the mother gets angry. Suddenly, someone knocks on the door of their miserable hut. Amahl brings in three kings. They explain how to follow a star from the sky to guide them to a newborn king. To celebrate the birth of the new king, Gaspard, Melchior and Balthazar took treasures that the mother wanted to take. After lecturing him, because they had surprised his attempted robbery, the three kings abandoned their precious gifts to the mother. She refuses, ashamed, understanding that love rather than gold will make the kingdom of the One who has just been born grow. Amahl sacrifices the only good he has for the newborn: his crutches. He is then healed, “as if by miracle”, and goes to accompany the three kings.
Opera in one act, sung in French
Libretto by the composer
Created in the NBC Studios in New York, 24 December 1951
Éditions G. Schirmer, represented by Sikorski Musikverlag, Hamburg
After a flute diploma, Marina Viotti tried her hand at jazz, gospel, heavy metal and, with a diploma of high literary studies (hypokhâgnes) in her pocket, moved to Vienna to begin studying opera singing with Heidi Brunner in 2011. In 2013, she joins Brigitte Balleys’ class at the HEMU, where she obtains a master’s degree as a soloist. She then perfected her skills in belcanto with Raúl Gimenez in Barcelona. Elected in 2019 “Best young singer of the year” at the International Opera Awards, she won numerous prizes in different competitions: finalist of the Operalia competition in 2018, 3rd prize of the Geneva Competition in 2016, 1st prize of the Kattenburg competition in Lausanne in 2017, international belcanto prize at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad in 2015.
Her important operatic roles include: Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at the Bolshoi, Mélibéa (Il viaggio a Reims) and Nicklausse/La Muse (Les contes d’Hoffmann) at the Liceu in Barcelona; Arsace (Aureliano in Palmira) and Isabella (L’Italiana in Algeri) at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad and then at the Lucerne Theatre, where she also sang the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein and Elisabetta (Marie Stuart); Stéphano (Romeo and Juliet) at La Scala, Rosina and Olga (Eugene Onegin) at the Rhine Opera; Maddalena (Rigoletto) at the Opernhaus in Zurich and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. She was also a member of the Young Soloists of the Grand Théâtre de Genève for two years. Eager to explore other avenues and to bring genres and people together, Marina Viotti creates projects that call upon the lyrical repertoire as well as cabaret, jazz and song.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Die Zauberflöte (2015), Amahl et les visiteurs du soir (2017), “Music has no borders” (2020 – concert).
Aurélien Reymond-Moret graduated with a degree in musicology from the Université de Saint-Etienne. He pursued his studies in singing with Heidi Raymond and Jan Marc Bruin, and took master classes with Françoise Pollet. In 2008, he joined the choirs of several operas including Limoges, Lausanne, Geneva and Saint-Étienne. He has been a singer in several professional ensembles in Lyon, Lausanne and Geneva.
As an oratorio soloist he has performed Mozart’s Requiem, the Sept paroles du Christ en croix by Franck, Le roi David by Honegger, Mahler’s 8th symphony and Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle. On stage, he has played King Ouf the 1st in L’Étoile by Chabrier, Pâris in La belle Hélène, Nanki-poo inLe Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, the messenger in Aida, the priest and the armed man in Die Zauberflöte, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette by Gounod, the Duke of Mantua in Les Brigands, Alfredo in La traviata and Le Veilleur de nuit in La None sanglante from Gounod.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Pan y toros (2009), La Fille de Madame Angot (2010), Rinaldo (2011), L’Aiglon (2013), Manon (2014), Amahl et les visiteurs du soir (2017), La donna del lago (2018), Anna Bolena (2019) and Ariadne auf Naxos (2019).
The Swiss baritone studied at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne in the class of Frédéric Gindraux, before moving to London to work with Prof. Rudolf Piernay at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he obtained an Artist Diploma with distinction. He also worked with Dame Felicity Lott, François Le Roux, Eugene Asti and Graham Johnson, whom he assisted in his latest book on the life of Francis Poulenc, “Poulenc: The Life in the Songs”, published by Liveright. He sings several roles for the Opéra de Lausanne, including the title role in Christiné’s operetta Dédé, Melchior in Menotti’s Amahl et les Visiteurs du Soir, Maximilian in Bernstein’s Candide, and Urbain in Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne. He also creates recitals for children and a workshop during the Lausanne Youth Olympic Games in 2020. He is also heard singing Weill’s Berliner Requiem during the exceptional concert of the Opera Choir. He has worked for the LSO (London Symphony Orchestra) on several occasions (Discovery Day on the music of Michael Tippett, soloist for Haydn’s Nelson Mass or curator of a recital in the series “Future: the musical voices of our time”), the BBC (“Immersion in the music of Detlev Glanert”) or the Wigmore Hall (study groups on the vocal music of Schumann, Ravel, a recital of contemporary music and a recital of French melodies). He is part of the French Song Exchange between the Wigmore Hall and the Salle Cortot in Paris, where he has the chance to make his debut in 2019 and return regularly to perform. The singer, a Samling Foundation Artist, is awarded the title of Ambassador of Melody by the Oxford Lieder Festival for the year 2020. He enters the concert placement of the Migros Culture Percentage, of which he is also a scholarship holder, as well as the Friedl-Wald and Colette Mosetti foundations. He participated in the final of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Competition in London and was also a finalist of the Young Classical Artist Trust in 2022. He won the English Song Prize in 2020, Second Prize and Audience Prize at the Kattenburg Competition in 2019, Third Prize and all Special Prizes in 2022, and Second Prize at the Somerset Song Prize. Future engagements include SongStudio 2023 at Carnegie Hall in New York with Renée Fleming, a recital series in England and Canada with pianist Cole Knutson for the Oxford Lieder Festival, the role of Maximilian in Bernstein’s Candide at the Opéra de Lausanne, and a revival of My Fair Lady.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: My fair Lady (2015), La Belle de Cadix (Route Lyrique 2016), L’Orfeo (2016), La vie parisienne (2016), Amahl et les visiteurs du soir (2017), Les chevaliers de la table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021) and Candide (2022).
Gérard Demierre went to the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel, the Piccolo Teatro in Milan and the École Nationale des Arts du Cirque in Paris. He was awarded for his work with the Morges Prix Culturel and the Prix de l’Éveil from the Fondation vaudoise pour la promotion et la création artistiques. He co-founded Le Petit Théâtre in Lausanne and was its director for 13 years. He wanted to transmit his passion for performing to the maximum possible number of people and therefore organised theatre workshops every summer for children and teenagers. To date, he has directed over a hundred productions.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Peter and the Wolf (2006 and 2011), Les moutons bleus (2008), Phi-Phi (2014 Lyric Road), and Amahl and the Night Visitors (2017).
Studying in Switzerland, Canada and Sweden. He was trained in architecture in Lausanne, a graduate from the Vancouver Film School, Sébastien Guenot places an intuitive narrative at the heart of his artistic work, with a pronounced taste for exploring the world of dreams; the unconscious and dreamlike. Whether it is a question of composing a spatial atmosphere, communicating a story or staging an emotion, his approach constantly strives to imagine a unique relationship between content and form.
Located between the ancient mystical imagination and contemporary arts, his narrative language is multiple, in the same way that his drawing, sculpture, painting, sound, photography, graphics, moving images, scenography and architecture.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Peter and the wolf (2006 and 2011), Les moutons bleus (2008), Phi-Phi (2014), L’enfant et les sortilèges (revived in 2015), La Belle de Cadix (2016), Amahl et les visiteurs du soir (2017).
After training as an electrician, Denis Foucart ventured into the world of events and designed the lighting for many events around the world, including Jean Michel Jarre’s concert, produced in Egpyt to usher in the year 2000. From 2000 to 2003, he was hired as the lighting director for the international tours of musicals Notre dame de Paris and Roméo et Juliette. At the end of 2003, he became the lighting director of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, and designed his first lighting for ballets with Zarathoustra, La vie du danseur and Le tour du monde en 80 minutes. For the Festival Avenches Opéra, he designed the lighting for La bohème and Nabucco.
Head electrician at the Opéra de Lausanne since 2008, he took over the lighting for Pierre et le loup, Die Zauberflöte, La veuve joyeuse, L’enfant et les sortilèges and created the lighting for Phi-Phi (Route Lyrique 2014), of La Belle de Cadix (Route Lyrique 2016), Les chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019) and Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021) as well as those of the opera for young audiences, Amahl et les visiteurs du soir in 2017 and Cendrillon in 2018 and 2023.