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With its universal appeal and heady charm, Carmen is one of the most performed operas in the world. Like its dark-eyed heroine, it is both rebellious and sensual, full of sparkle and darkness, alternating between intimate scenes and triumphant choruses. Georges Bizet wins over as much as he innovates. His brilliant touch fascinates the audience: above and beyond the score, it was also he that penned the most imperishable lines of the libretto, based on the short story by Prosper Mérimée. Everything serves the drama. The insolently expressive rhythm bewitches; the orchestration with its Hispanic touches is a breath of fresh air. On the ramparts of Seville, the unforgettable gypsy throws men a provocative flower, habanera and seguedilla, like so many spells. The femme fatale claims her freedom. As she had foreseen, she disappears in a final duet, of which Nietzsche would say: “I know no case where the tragic joke that constitutes the essence of love is expressed so strictly, translated with equal terror into a formula, as in Don José’s cry: Yes, I have killed her, I – my adored Carmen!” The opera premiered on 3rd March 1875 and Bizet died exactly three months later, on the evening of the 33rd performance.
For their respective debuts at the Opéra de Lausanne, Jean-François Sivadier transforms the stage into a formidable performance machine for the artists and the audience’s imagination; while Jean-Marie Zeitouni, a specialist in 19th century French music, conducts this fiery drama. Giving pride of place to actor direction, this production is an opportunity to revisit Bizet’s masterpiece, absent from our stage since 20 years.
Created March 3rd, 1875, at the Opéra Comique, Paris
Fritz Oeser Edition © Alkor-Edition Kassel
The Opéra de Lausanne Choir is young, made up of students of singing from Lausanne’s University of Music and the Geneva HEM, and professional singers. Its members are selected by audition and periodically reheard. For each opera, they are distributed depending on their voice and/or aptitudes. Thanks mainly to their talent on stage, supported by an infectious enthusiasm, they are highly appreciated by all the theatre directors invited. For a few years the choir has benefitted from preparation by several experienced choir masters from different backgrounds, chosen depending on the works being sung and their specific interest.
Born in 1969, Catherine Fender is a choral conductor, voice and choral conducting teacher, composer and arranger. Alsatian, she studied piano, organ, singing and especially choral conducting, first with Florent Stroesser in Strasbourg, then Pierre Cao in Luxembourg. She broadened her horizons and deepened her knowledge of the profession by working with Hans-Michael Beuerle in Germany, Raphaël Immoos in Switzerland, as well as by participating in training courses and workshops with Michel-Marc Gervais, Frieder Bernius, Gunnar Eriksson, Eric Ericcson and Michel Corboz, to name but a few. She has initiated and trained many young choral conductors who are now active in France, in the Rhine triangle and internationally. She will join the committee of the French Institute of Choral Art in 2021. Holder of a certificate of aptitude for choral conducting, she has taught choral singing and choral conducting at the Conservatories of Strasbourg and Colmar, at the University of Strasbourg (in particular at the Centre de formation de musiciens intervenants). She is a founding member of the Choeur 3 academy (France-Germany-Switzerland) and regularly teaches master classes. She is a regular lecturer (choral conducting) at the Basel University of Music. She took over the direction of the Lausanne School of Music Choir in August 2020.