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In the school of love, the learning curve is steep: Don Alfonso teaches that a faithful woman is “as rare as a phoenix”. This is what he is bent on proving Ferrando, Dorabella’s fiancé, and Guglielmo, Fiordiligi’s fiancé. The lesson of this imbroglio is simple: “The happy man looks at the bright side of everything!”
First performed in Burgtheater, Vienne, January 26th, 1790
Editions Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel
Born in Moldova, Valentina Nafornita is one of the most successful sopranos of her generation. Shortly after graduating from the National University of Music in Bucharest, she won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, which launched her international career. As a member of the young ensemble of the Vienna State Opera, she was able to develop a vast repertoire: Musetta (La bohème), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Norina (Don Pasquale), Zerlina, (Don Giovanni), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Clorinda (La Cenerentola) and Oscar (Un ballo in maschera). This repertoire has evolved with her debut as Iolanta (Tchaikovsky) at the Opéra Garnier, as well as her roles as Desdemona (Otello), Luisa Miller, Maria (Simon Boccanegra) and Mimi (La bohème). Her international career has taken her to the Paris Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, among others. She works regularly with prestigious conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Adám Fischer, Louis Langrée, Franz Welser-Möst and Simone Young. His debut album “Romance”, released in 2020 by Alpha, has received critical acclaim. Among the highlights of her 2022/23 season: her return to the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with a performance as Micaela (Carmen) and her debut as Mimi (La bohème) at the Berlin Staatsoper.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Così fan tutte (2019) and Le nozze di Figaro (2021).
Joel Prieto studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris, then in a project for young singers at the Salzburg Festival. He gained international recognition as an ensemble member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and through his involvement in the zarzuela Luisa Fernanda alongside Plácido Domingo, at the Theater an der Wien. He has performed with conductors Fabio Luisi, Roberto Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Adam Fischer, and worked with directors David McVicar, Robert Carsen and Claus Guth. He was awarded first prize at the Operalia competition and has performed in concert and recital at the Salzburg Festival, the Maestranza in Sevilla and at Wigmore Hall. He has sung alongside Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott.
More recently, he played the title-role in Béatrice et Bénédict by Berlioz at the Capitole in Toulouse and Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail for his debut at the Los Angeles Opera.
After several years of musical studies and a degree in agricultural engineering in Paris, Stéphanie Guérin enrolled at the Haute école de musique in Geneva where she is currently pursuing a soloist master’s in Maria Diaconu’s class. She has taken part in many master classes in France, England and Germany. Since 2016, she has worked with the Cantatio ensemble from Geneva directed by John Duxbury and has performed in a production of King Arthur at Victoria Hall.
She recently performed with the HEM’s baroque orchestra directed by Leonardo García Alarcón in a program dedicated to Bach; she played Katherine in the musical Kiss me Kate, conducted by Nader Abbassi and directed by Christain Räth, and performed Mozart’s Requiem with the Namu Chamber Choir, also conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón. She has performed duets with pianist Julien Coll. It was with him that she won the 10th Lied & Mélodie de Gordes competition, resulting in her being hired for two concerts the following season. She recently won the 2018-19 Mosetti scholarship, as well as the Cercle romand Richard Wagner scholarship, which made it possible for her to go to Bayreuth this summer (2018).
Current projects: Ruggiero in Alcina with the Hamburg Hochschule, under the direction of Willem Wentzel in a production by Philipp Himmelmann.
Canadian bass-baritone Robert Gleadow continues to make his mark on opera stages around the world after graduating from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme and the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio. His performances at the Houston Grand Opera as Talbot in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda with Joyce DiDonato under the direction of Patrick Summers have been highly praised by critics. Most of his engagements are dedicated to Mozart, a repertoire for which he is widely acclaimed. Highlights of his past seasons include appearances at the Auckland Opera, the Opéra de Paris and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Lausanne Opera and the Bremen Music Festival. The critics readily acknowledge his total physical commitment to his roles and his magnetic theatricality, especially as he makes his voice stand out. He has a powerful, expressive, easy vocal style.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Così fan tutte (2018) and Le nozze di Figaro (2021).
Bruno de Simone studied singing under Sesto Bruscantini. He gained recognition performing the dramma giocoso genre and opéra bouffe, taking part in the greatest works of Galuppi, Pergolesi, Paisiello, Cimarosa and especially Rossini, of which he has already played 17 roles, earning him a Rossini d’Or in 2007. He has sung the main roles of operas by Mozart, Donizetti, and Puccini, and played Falstaff in Verdi’s opera, Michonnet in Adriana Lecouvreur and Kyoto in Iris by Mascagni. He has performed in Europe, the United States and Japan with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti and Zubin Mehta, in productions by Giancarlo Cobelli, Hugo De Ana and David McVicar.
He recently performed in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Monte-Carlo and Geneva, L’elisir d’amore in Florence, Il viaggio a Reims in Rome, Che originali! by Mayr, at the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore (1998), Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia (2014).
Graduated from the School of Singing of Madrid, she studied with Miguel Zanetti, Wolgam Rieger, Isabel Penagos, Victoria of Los Angeles, Montserrat Caballé, Dolora Zajick. She sings in all the important Spanish theatres : Teatro Real, Teatro de la Zarzuela (with more than 20 main roles), National Auditorium, Campoamor Theater in Oviedo, Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Baluarte Theater in Pamplona, Santander Palace Festivals, Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Opera of A Coruña, etc. Abroad, she has performed in Vienna, Bratislava, Paris, Lisbon, Rome, Naples or Mexico.
Her most recent operatic commitments have been : Carmen, I due Foscari, Così fan tutte, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Resurrection of Christ by Grundman, Mavra de Stravinsky, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Les contes d’Hoffmann, La vera costanza, Don Giovanni, Il tutore burlato by Martin and Soler, Die Tote Stadt and Iphigénie in Tauride. She is also in great demand for the oratory and has a great discography.
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.
Joshua Weilerstein is the artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and has a successful career as a guest conductor throughout Europe and the United States. His enthusiasm for a wide range of repertoires is combined with an ambition to bring new audiences into concert halls. He created Sticky Notes, a classical music podcast for experienced and new music lovers alike.
Awarded the Audience Prize at the 2009 Malko Competition, he has since then established strong ties to the Oslo Philharmonic, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Stockholm Philharmonic, and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. He has also directed the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, the SWR Stuttgart, the NDR Hannover, the Orchestre national de Lyon, the BBC Symphony and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Trained as an actor, director and teacher, Jean Liermier has been at the head the Théâtre de Carouge, one of the leading theatrical institutions in French-speaking Switzerland, since 2008. In theatre, he is mainly interested in staging plays from the classical repertoire, such as Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac or Molière’s Le Malade imaginaire, with actor Gilles Privat in the title roles. In March 2023, he directed Alfred de Musset’s On ne badine pas avec l’amour in Carouge. In opera, he directed Walton’s The Bear for the Opéra décentralisé in Neuchâtel, Die Zauberflöte for the Opéra de Marseille at the invitation of Renée Auphan, Cantates profanes, une petite chronique, a montage of cantatas by Jean-Sébastien Bach for the Opéra national du Rhin and Le nozze di Figaro for the Opéra national de Lorraine and the Opéra national de Caen (a show that was repeated in 2011 and 2012 in Nancy and Rennes). In June 2009, he directed Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges for the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris, a show that was repeated in May 2011 at the Opéra National de Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid and then at the Bilbao Opera House.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: My Fair Lady (2015), Così fan tutte (2018) and My Fair Lady (2022).
Rudy Sabounghi has worked for theater and opera with artists such as Klaus Michael Gruber, Luc Bondy, Jean-Claude Berutti, Jacques Lassalle, Luca Ronconi, Deborah Warner, Jean-Louis Grinda, Jean Liermier, Muriel Mayette, Fabrice Murgia and filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin. For dance, he has worked with Anne-Teresa de Keersmaeker and Lucinda Childs. He recently took part in the creation of Mozart’s Concerts Arias at the Opéra Ballet de Flandre in Antwerp (choreography by De Keersmaeker), Le Sourire de Darwin at the Théâtre de Nice (directed by Muriel Mayette, written and performed by Isabella Rossellini), and the sets and costumes for On ne badine pas avec l’amour at the Théâtre de Carouge, directed by Jean Liermier. In the past, he has worked at the Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne on L’Homme difficile, Le Misanthrope (directed by Jean Lassalle) and Phèdre (directed by Luc Bondy), as well as Cyrano and La Fausse Suivante at the Théâtre de Carouge (directed by Jean Liermier). He teaches regularly at ENSATT in Lyon. In preparation this summer 2024 for the next edition of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro: Bianca & Falliero (directed by Jean-Louis Grinda), in January 2025 Tristan & Isolde at Opéra de Liège (directed by Jean-Claude Berutti), then Werther (directed by Fabrice Murgia) at Opéra de Liège in March 2025.
At Opéra de Lausanne: Così fan tutte (2018)
Jean-Philippe Guilois entered the National School of the Paris Opera in 1997 and then joined the Rudra Béjart School, with which he participated in several shows and international tours. He made his first professional experience with the Compagnie Buissonnière in Parce que je t’aime, presented at the Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne. While multiplying his contracts as a dancer, he was introduced to the world of opera as a stage manager, and then became assistant director for La bohème, Nabucco, Carmen and Madame Butterfly at the Avenches Opera Festival, L’Aiglon and La Traviata at the Opéra de Marseille, Armide and Cendrillon at the Opéra de Nancy, Falstaff at the Opéra de Montpellier. Recently, he created the choreographies of My fair Lady at the Opéra de Marseille, Un ballo in maschera at the Opéra de Nancy and Tannhäuser at the Opéra national de Lyon. He currently devotes himself to the creation of choreographies, plays and stage productions.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Alcina (2011), My fair Lady (2015), La vie parisienne (2016), Don Giovanni (2017), Così fan tutte (2018), Les chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), L’auberge du Cheval Blanc (2019) and Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021), My Fair Lady (2022) and Davel (2023)
Jean-Philippe Roy started in 1977 at the Théâtre de Carouge under the direction of François Rochaix. Freelance lighting designer since 1981, he regularly designs the lighting for operas directed by François Rochaix and designed by Jean-Claude Maret, notably at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. With the director Claude Stratz and the set designer Ezio Toffolutti, he lights several plays at the Comédie de Genève, the Opéra de Lausanne and the Comédie Française. For the past few years, he has been working with the director Jean Liermier: in opera with Die Zauberflöte in Marseille, Bach’s Cantates profanes in Strasbourg, Le nozze di Figaro in Nancy; in theater with Penthésilée by Heinrich von Kleist at the Comédie Française, Le Médecin malgré lui by Molière at the Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne, Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard by Marivaux, L’École des Femmes, Le Malade imaginaire by Molière, La Vie que je t’ai donnée by Pirandello and Cyrano de Bergerac by Rostand at the Théâtre de Carouge, where he will soon collaborate in Sur les marionnettes by Kleist (directed by Gilles Lambert) and On ne badine pas avec l’amour by Musset (directed by Jean Liermier).
At the Opéra de Lausanne: My fair Lady (2015) and Così fan tutte (2018).