With the Support of
Muse to Ivan Tourgueniev, Charles Gounod, George Sand and Alfred de Musset, Pauline Viardot was an actress, mezzo-soprano – her sister was diva Maria Malibran – and more importantly, the composer of several operettas, including this opéra comique inspired by Perrault’s fairy tale. In this version, Cinderella’s father, a former convict, has become an upstart grocer known as the Baron of Pictordu. A light-hearted and quirky production, a parody and whimsical.
First performed in the salons of Mlle Mathilde de Nogueiras, Paris, April 23rd, 1904
Orchestration by Didier Puntos
Alexandre Diakoff won first prize for singing in the class of Eric Tappy at the Geneva Conservatory of Music. He regularly performs character roles in opera. He has performed Amida (L’Ormindo), Simone (La finta semplice), Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola), Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Bruschino père (Il signor Bruschino), Slook (La cambiale di matrimonio), Benedict (La bohème), the doctor Grenvil (La traviata), the doctor (The Nose), Amantio di Nicolao and Maestro Spinelloccio (Gianni Schicchi). As an oratorio singer, he has interpreted the great works of the repertoire. At the Opéra de Lausanne: Le Chat botté (2009), Monsieur Choufleuri (Route Lyrique 2012), Le Petit Prince (2014), La Cenerentola (2015), My fair Lady (2015), La Fille du régiment (2016), Hamlet (2017), Les Zoocrates (2017), Simon Boccanegra (2018) and Le nozze di Figaro (2021).
French-Romanian soprano, Alexandra Dobos-Rodriguez joins, after studying law, Leontina Vaduva’s singing class at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne where she obtains her master’s degree in June 2018. On stage, she has performed the roles of Cinderella in Pauline Viardot’s opera of the same name at the Opéra de Lausanne, the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte at the Nouvel Opéra Fribourg, Adele in Bellini’s Il Pirata and Nerine in Charpentier’s Médée at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. More recently, she was Violetta in Pontarlier and Pamina and Mimi at the Festival des Nuits musicales en Armagnac. Her career has allowed her to work with renowned conductors and directors (Sir David McVicar, Leonardo García Alarcón, Daniele Callegari) and to benefit from the teaching of great artists (Leontina Vaduva, Helmut Deutsch, Alexia Cousin, Brigitte Balleys, Thierry Pillon, Didier Laclau-Barrère). In 2017, she was selected to participate in the workshop “Exzellenzlabor Oper” under the direction of Hedwig Fassbender and René Massis in Germany. Alexandra is twice laureate of the Migros Cultural Percentage Foundation in 2017 and 2018.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Cinderella (2018).
The French tenor Jean Miannay studied singing in Lausanne with Brigitte Balleys and in Berlin in the class of Scot Weir. He distinguished himself in 2018 at the 4th Raymond Duffaut Competition, where he won the grand prize. Following this, he won various awards at the Clermont-Ferrand Competition, the Kattenburg Competition, as well as the 2nd Vienna International Music Competition. His young lyric voice leads him to interpret roles such as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Beppe (Pagliacci), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Alfredo (La traviata), Vincent (Mireille), or Des Grieux (Manon). In 2018, he made his first steps at the Lausanne Opera, where he performs regularly thereafter. He sings in France at the operas of Massy, Avignon and Clermont-Ferrand, as well as at the Chorégies d’Orange for the fourth consecutive year. In 2022, he made his German debut at the Theater Magdeburg in a production of Orpheus in der Unterwelt. Curious by nature, he also flourishes in contemporary creation as well as in chamber music. He has performed Benjamin Britten’s Illuminations and Serenade for horn and tenor, Janáček’s Diary of the Missing and Schumann’s Dichterliebe. He is expected this summer as Remendado (Carmen) at the Chorégies d’Orange and joins the Opéra Studio du Rhin for the 2023/24 season.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon (2018), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (2019), Rinaldo (2020), L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021), Semiramide, Eugene Onegin and L’elisir d’amore (2022).
A Franco-Italian mezzo-soprano born in Milan, Béatrice Nani joined Brigitte Balleys’ class at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne in 2014, graduating with a Master of Singing in 2019. She is currently perfecting her vocal skills with Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet. Passionate about theater, she trained with Gaëlle Bourgeois and Fiona Chauvin in Paris, and received invaluable advice from Thierry Pillon, Jean-Yves Ruf and Shin Iglesias. In 2016, she made her Geneva debut, creating the role of Ella Maillart in Guy-François Leuenberger’s Le Ruisseau noir at the Théâtre du Grütli. She then played Lois in Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate at the Théâtre du Galpon. She was also heard in Bottesini’s Requiem at the Victoria Hall. In 2022, she made her French debut as La Mère in Guy-François Leuenberger’s contemporary children’s opera Le Petit Chaperon rouge at the Opéra de Tours. In 2023, she sings the title role in Bizet’s Carmen on tour in Switzerland. In the 2023/24 season, she is Mercedes in Carmen and Didon in Dido and Aeneas. She can also be heard in Palmeri’s Misa a Buenos Aires and in concert with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne conducted by Marc Leroy-Calatayud. A committed artist, she founded the Les Rocambolantes company with pianist Émilie Roulet, and is involved in a number of performance and mediation projects for young audiences and the disadvantaged. The show Mimi and the Blondies, which she staged with soprano Anne-Sophie Petit, won the Lavaux Classic prize.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La Vie Parisienne (2016), Le Chanteur de Mexico (2017), Cendrillon (2018), Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021), Candide (2022), Orphée aux Enfers (2023).
Ada Élodie Tuca began her career at the Maîtrise de l’Opéra de Lyon where she performed Juliet in Le petit Ramoneur, conducted by Alan Woodbridge and directed by Nino d’Introna, and the 15-year old girl in Lulu by Berg with Kazushi Ono and Peter Stein. Student of Leontina Vaduva, she earned a Master’s in interpretation at the HEMU in 2018. It was there that she took part in masterclasses with John Fiore, Gary Magby, Helmut Deutsch, Martin Katz and Luisa Castellani, and played Rossignol in L’enfant et les sortilèges, under the direction of Benjamin Levy, the Queen of the Night in La flûte enchantée and Mme Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor, reprised at the Théâtre de Bonlieu in Annecy. At the beginning of 2018, she made her debut as Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Opéra de Fribourg under the direction of Olivier Desbordes, Benjamin Moreau and Laurent Gendre.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Phi-Phi (2014), La veuve joyeuse (2014), La vie parisienne (2016).
Anne Sophie Petit holds a Master’s degree as a soloist from the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, in Stephan MacLeod’s class. She is a Young Talent of the Académie Musicale Philippe Jaroussky in 2019/20, a laureate of the Royaumont Foundation and a member of the Studio de l’Opéra de Lyon (2020/21). She won the Geneva Mahler Competition in 2020 along with pianist Marcell Vigh. She made her stage debut at the Opéra de Lausanne in 2017 as Musetta (La bohème). She has performed on stages such as the Opéra de Rouen, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where she made her debut as Queen of the Night. She has collaborated with ensembles such as Gli Angeli Genève, Les Ambassadeurs – La Grande Ecurie, Le Concert de la Loge, the Orchestre du XVIIIe Siècle and the Ensemble Correspondance.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La bohème (2017), Cendrillon (2018), Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019) and Pinocchio (2023).
After getting his degree in musicology at the La Sorbonne, Louis Zaitoun studied singing with professors like Pierre Catala, Gary Magby, Leontina Vaduva, Christine Schweitzer, and Piero Visconti and in master classes with Sylvia Sass, Nadine Denize, Giacomo Aragall, David Jones and Jean Paul Fouchécourt. He joined the Chœur de l’Armée Française before being accepted into the HEMU where he obtained his master’s with honours. He won second prize at the Béziers Opera Competition and a performance award at the Accademia Belcanto International Competition in Graz. He is currently specializing at the University of Music in Bern as a master soloist, and at the opera studio at the Opéra de Lyon. His lyric tenor voice allows him to tackle a wide repertoire: he has performed main roles as well as in operettas like La Vie Parisienne and Chilperic by Hervé, and in belcanto productions like Rita by Donizetti, or more dramatic productions like Tosca, La bohème, Rigoletto and Manru.
He recently played Don José in Carmen at Victoria Hall in Geneva and at the Stravinsky auditorium in Montreux.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: the son in Les mamelles de Tirésias (2016), the Brazilian in La vie parisienne (2016).
Licensed concert pianist, with a degree in composition and accompaniment, Didier Puntos is a regular guest of the Debussy String Quartet, the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Orchestre de la Suisse romande. He is active both in France and abroad. In 1986, he became the choirmaster for the Atelier Lyrique of the Opéra de Lyon and has worked with the likes of Patrice Caurier, Moshe Leiser and Benjamin Knobil on La Périchole, Die Fledermaus and Così fan tutte at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Opéra de Paris.
As a composer, he has created a ballet, L’ombre des jumeaux, an opera, L’enfant dans l’ombre, vocal works, and chamber music and piano pieces. His discography includes a complete collection of André Messager’s melodies. Between 2003 and 2008, he was the musical director for the Passeggiata vocal ensemble.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: L’enfant et les sortilèges (2010 and 2015).
Originally from the Marseille region, Gilles Rico studied music and philosophy before taking a PhD in medieval philosophy at Oxford University. In parallel to his academic career, he turned to opera directing, working first as an assistant for various European and North American opera houses and festivals. He has worked with directors such as Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser, Joël Pommerat, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Jérôme Deschamps, Andreas Homoki, David McVicar, Damiano Michieletto, Robert Carsen, James Gray and Katie Mitchell. In 2016, he directed his first opera production at Angers-Nantes Opéra, the world premiere of Maria Republica by François Paris, which received the Critics’ Choice Award the same year. He also directed Un dîner avec Jacques, a show based on Offenbach produced by the Opéra-Comique in Paris and then taken on tour in France. He created the participatory opera Tistou les pouces verts by Henri Sauguet at the Rouen Opera and then staged Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Philharmonie de Paris. More recently, he directed the participatory opera Les Petites Noces after Mozart at the Opéra de Rouen, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in Avignon and Toulon, and the operette L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc by Benatzsky in Lausanne and Marseille. As a librettist, Gilles Rico wrote the libretto of Violetta Cruz’s La Princesse légère for the Opéra-Comique and the Opéra de Lille, and the libretto of Fabian Panisello’s chamber opera Les Rois mages, which he also directed in Madrid, Nice and Tel Aviv. His directing projects include Offenbach’s L’Île de Tulipatan at the Opéra de Lausanne (Route Lyrique), Zingarelli’s Giulietta e Romeo at the Opéra royal de Versailles, Gounod’s Le Tribut de Zamora at the Opéra de Saint-Etienne and the world premiere of Zad Moultaka’s Hémon at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Cendrillon by Pauline Viardot (2018), Le nozze di Figaro (2021), L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021) and L’Île de Tulipatan (Route Lyrique 2023).
A graduate of the École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre in France, Bruno de Lavenère creates stage designs for opera, dance and theatre. In 2014, the Syndicat professionnel de la critique de théâtre, de musique et de danse awarded him the prize for best creator of scenographic elements with the video artist Etienne Guiol in the opera category for the set design of Doctor Atomic in Strasbourg. He has worked with Thomas Jolly, Lucinda Childs, Jean-Louis Grinda, Renée Auphan, Jean-Romain Vesperini, Richard Brunel, Frédéric Roels, Max Emanuel Cencic and Gilles Rico. Among his latest creations are Roméo et Juliette at the Opéra Bastille, Armide at the Opéra-Comique, On purge bébé at La Monnaie, Henry VIII at Bard (New York), L’Avare at the Comédie-Française, Macbeth Underworld at La Monnaie, Norma in Muscat (Oman), Mozart and Salieri in Lyon, Il trovatore in Lille and Luxembourg, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte in Rouen, Quai Ouest and Cav/Pag in Strasbourg, The Sleeping Beauty in Basel, Les Petites Noces at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, La Belle Hélène at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Little Nemo and Maria Republica in Nantes, Re Orso at the Opéra-Comique, Carmen in Hong Kong, La bohème at the Bolshoi, Otello in Monte-Carlo and Akhnaten in Nice.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Siroe (2016), La Vie parisienne (2016), La Donna del lago (2018), Cendrillon (2018) and The White Horse Inn (2021).
Karolina Luisoni studied fashion design at the University of Art and Design in Krakow. She continued her training in costume and textile design at the University of Huddersfield, England. Her graduation project in 2013 won her a special award from actor Sir Patrick Steward, as well as a prize from the Northern Society of Costumes and Textiles. In 2015, she won the international competition organized by Luc Besson, for the costumes in his film Valérian et la Cité des mille planètes. In 2019, her “Mephistopheles” costume was exhibited at the Moscow State Historical Museum as part of the “Innovative Costume of the 21st Century: Next Generation” exhibition.
Since 2015, she has collaborated with several theater companies in Switzerland and abroad, and initiated her collaboration with the Opéra de Lausanne, where she participated in the workshop in the making of several Opéra de Lausanne creations. In 2017, she helped create the costumes for the production of Don Giovanni directed by Éric Vigié, followed by Eugène Onéguine in 2021 at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie. Her first production at Opéra de Lausanne was Cendrillon in 2018, followed by L’auberge du Cheval Blanc directed by Gilles Rico in 2021. Karolina Luisoni also works with theaters and theater companies in French-speaking Switzerland, most recently for Les Voyages Extraordinaires, TKM and Petit Théâtre Lausanne, where she will make her latest creation in December 2022 for the show Little Nemo.
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.