When he set to work on his first work with the ‘imperial poet’ Lorenzo da Ponte in the autumn of 1785, it had been three years since Mozart had touched opera. Their first partnership on Le nozze di Figaro was an immediate triumph, so much so that the Emperor of Austria himself, who loved it, demanded more. In 1789, he commissioned a new opera buffa, while personally imposing the subject: the on-stage transposition of a (true-life) story that everyone in Vienna was talking about, that of two officers who, while stationed in Trieste, had… swapped wives! This was to be Così fan tutte. Both Mozart and Da Ponte outdid themselves. A Venetian familiar with the most tortuous paths of love and, more generally, with the whole range of emotional subtleties inherent to human nature, the poet delivers a pared-down work in which equivocation and offbeat humour are given free rein, in the purest buffa tradition. Perfectly in tune with these different levels of language and understanding, Mozart let himself be carried along by the plot, delivering a virtuoso score in terms of the refined combinations it offers: duets, ensembles, and even the use of the orchestra itself to spice up the whole thing with innuendo. And all this in barely a month!
First performance at the Burgtheater in Vienna on January 26, 1790
Published by Alkor – Bärenreiter, Kassel
Diego Fasolis began his career as a concert organist before turning to conducting. A regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, he conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Musikverein with the Vienna Concentus Musicus and the Arnold Schönberg Choir. More recently, La Scala entrusted him with the creation of an orchestra playing on period instruments, which he then conducted in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno. In 2017, he also conducted Tamerlano there with Plácido Domingo. Among his recent or upcoming engagements: La finta giardiniera at La Scala and in Shanghai, L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Berlin Staatsoper, La sonnambula at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Paër’s Agnese and Così fan tutte at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Dorilla in Tempe at La Fenice, Il turco in Italia at La Scala, Cherubini’s Lo sposo di tre, e marito di nessuna at the Florence Opera, Vivaldi’s Farnace at the Teatro Malibran in Venice, Handel’s Alessandro with the Kammerorchester Basel in Göttingen, Paris and Basel. In 2019, Diego Fasolis was nominated in the Conductor of the Year category at the International Opera Awards.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Faramondo (2009), Rinaldo (2011), Farnace (2011), L’Artaserse (2012), Dorilla in Tempe (2014), Die Zauberflöte (2015), Ariodante (2016), La clemenza di Tito (2018), Orpheus and Eurydice (2019), Meyerbeer’s Gli amori di Teolinda (2019) and Alcina (2022).
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).
Born in Rome, Arianna Vendittelli is a graduate of the “Antonio Buzzolla” Conservatory in Adria. She is currently studying with Mariella Devia. She made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in Carmi in Mozart’s oratorio La Betulia liberata, conducted by Riccardo Muti. Particularly attached to the Mozart repertoire, she played Zerlina (Don Giovanni) at the Spoleto Festival and Donna Elvira in Beaune and Bremen under Jérémie Rhorer. In Così fan tutte she sang the role of Fiordiligi on several Italian stages and Despina at the Teatro Regio in Turin. She has been acclaimed for her performances in works by Rossini, notably in the title role of Ermione and Amaltea in Mosè in Egitto at the San Carlo in Naples. Recognised for her work in the Baroque repertoire, she has performed as Salome in San Giovanni Battista by Stradella with Vacláv Luks; took part in a production of Hasse’s Semele at the Theater an der Wien and portrayed Minerva (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria) in a production by Ottavio Dantone and Robert Carsen in Florence. She brought Amantio to life in Vivaldi’s Il Giustino conducted by Ottavio Dantone, and the Angel in Pergolesi’s La conversione di San Guglielmo d’Aquitania with Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset. Future engagements include Angelica (Rossi’s Il Palazzo incantato) conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón, Donna Rosa (Luigi Cherubini’s Sposo di tre e il marito di nessuna) in a production by Diego Fasolis at the Florence Opera and the Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy conducted by Marc Minkowski at the Liceu in Barcelona and at the Opéra de Bordeaux.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Il Giustino (2019), Rinaldo (2021) and Le nozze di Figaro (2021).
Belarusian tenor Pavel Petrov is the winner of the First Prize and the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Prize of Zarzuela of Operalia 2018. He is also a finalist in the Belvedere and Queen Sonja International Music Competitions. He will soon appear as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Opéra de Paris, and the opera houses in Lausanne and Graz. Past engagements include debuts at the Wiener Staatsoper in the roles of Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore); and Tamino, Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at the Opéra de Paris and Opernhaus Graz; Lensky (Eugene Onegin) at Klagenfurt and Lausanne; the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) at the Hong Kong Opera and the Bregenzer Festspiele; Alfredo (La traviata) at the Savolinna Festival, Pong (Turandot) for his Covent Garden debut; Alfredo for his debut at the Arena di Verona; Ferrando (Così fan tutte) for Opera Australia; Tchaplitski (La dame de pique) for his debut at the Salzburg Festival; Alfredo and Lensky at the Bucharest National Opera; and Alfredo at the Michel Theatre in St. Petersburg. As a member of the Graz Opera Ensemble, he has performed the roles of Alfredo, Lensky, Belfiore (Il viaggio a Reims), Prunier (La Rondine) and Rodolfo (La bohème).
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Eugene Onegin (2022).
A Canadian mezzo-soprano, Wallis Giunta trained with the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Juilliard School in New York, from which she graduated in 2013. From 2015 to 2019 she was a member of the Leipzig Opera Ensemble, which included debuts in the title roles of Carmen, La Cenerentola and Der Rosenkavalier. In 2018, she was named “Young Singer of the Year” at the International Opera Awards and by The Arts Desk. Recent seasons have seen important debuts at the Metropolitan Opera, the Théâtre du Châtelet, and with the symphony orchestras of the Mittel Deutscher Grunffund in Leipzig, Hamburg, Toronto, Seville, Tokyo and Munich Radio. After collaborations with Toronto’s Opera Atelier and Opera North, she joined the Wiener Volksoper ensemble when its new artistic directors, Lotte de Beer & Omer Meir Wellber, took over, where her repertoire for the 2022/23 season includes the roles of Angelina (La Cenerentola), Hänsel, Prince Orlofsky, Cherubino, as well as two roles in the world premiere of Moritz Eggert’s Die letzte Verschwörung. She will also make her debut in 2023 at the Komische Oper Berlin in Berio’s Folk Songs conducted by Brendon Keith Brown, as well as at the Opéra-Comique in the role of Dodo in Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking The Waves.
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).
Rubén Amoretti honed his musical skills in Switzerland and the United States with his teachers Dennis Hall, Carlos Montané and Nicolai Gedda. He has won prizes in various international competitions in Spain, Bloomington and Palermo. His intense career has taken him to the stages of New York, Bern, Moscow, Zurich, Stuttgart, Vienna, Geneva, Palm Beach, Paris, Prague, Mexico City, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona and Seville. He has worked with great conductors, including Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Anton Guadagno, Marcello Viotti, Nello Santi, Zubin Mehta, Alberto Zedda, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Ramón Tebar, Karel Mark Chichon, Víctor Pablo Pérez, Miquel Ortega, Óliver Díaz and Giuseppe Sabbatini. His repertoire includes the main bass roles: Mesphistopheles (Faust), Don Giovanni and Leporello (Don Giovanni), Mustafá (L’italiana in Algeri), Filippo II (Don Carlos), Zaccaria (Nabucco), Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Ferrando (Il trovatore), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), Colline (La bohème), Scarpia (Tosca), Capulet (Romeo and Juliet) and Balthazar (La favorita). His interest in the Spanish opera repertoire for which he is regularly invited to sing at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid is particularly noteworthy. In recent seasons he has sung Escamillo in Naples with Zubin Mehta and Mustafá at the Metropolitan in New York. In 2021, Rubén Amoretti performed in Falla’s La tempranica and La vida breve at the Teatro de la Zarzuela and in Rigoletto in San Sebastian. He has just made his debut at La Scala in Milan in Andrea Chénier.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Rigoletto (2005), Pan y Toros (2009), Don Giovanni (2017) and Le nozze di Figaro (2021).
Lausanne-based soprano Marie Lys trained at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne and then at the Royal College of Music in London. First prize winner at the Cesti Baroque Opera Competition (2018) and the Vincenzo Bellini Belcanto Competition (2017), she has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Diego Fasolis, Christophe Rousset, Fabio Biondi, Leonardo García Alarcón, Emmanuelle Haïm and Michel Corboz. She has also performed with orchestras such as Europa Galante, Les Talens Lyriques, Sinfonia Varsovia, The English Concert, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Cameristi della Scala and Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco. She has sung the roles of Ginevra (Ariodante) and Adelaide (Lotario) at the Handel Festival in Göttingen, Dorinda (Orlando) at the Castell Festival in Peralada, Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Yniold (Pelléas et Mélisande) and Clorinda (La Cenerentola) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and recently replaced Cecilia Bartoli at the last minute in the title role of Handel’s Alcina at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. She has played the role of Bellezza in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno alongside Biondi in Granada, and the title role in Donizetti’s Betly for the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw. She will soon appear in Vivaldi’s Tamerlano during an Italian tour conducted by Ottavio Dantone, as well as in Lully’s Thésée at the Theater an der Wien, at the Bozar in Brussels and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées under the baton of Christophe Rousset. Marie was supported in her debut by the Migros Culture Percentage and the Leenaards, Dénéréaz, Colette Mosetti and Friedl Wald, Samling, Drake Calleja Trust and Josephine Baker Trust foundations.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Orlando paladino (2017), La sonnambula (2018), Die Fledermaus (2018), Orpheus and Eurydice (2019), Alcina (2022) and Candide (2022).
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.
Diego Fasolis began his career as a concert organist before turning to conducting. A regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, he conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Musikverein with the Vienna Concentus Musicus and the Arnold Schönberg Choir. More recently, La Scala entrusted him with the creation of an orchestra playing on period instruments, which he then conducted in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno. In 2017, he also conducted Tamerlano there with Plácido Domingo. Among his recent or upcoming engagements: La finta giardiniera at La Scala and in Shanghai, L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Berlin Staatsoper, La sonnambula at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Paër’s Agnese and Così fan tutte at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Dorilla in Tempe at La Fenice, Il turco in Italia at La Scala, Cherubini’s Lo sposo di tre, e marito di nessuna at the Florence Opera, Vivaldi’s Farnace at the Teatro Malibran in Venice, Handel’s Alessandro with the Kammerorchester Basel in Göttingen, Paris and Basel. In 2019, Diego Fasolis was nominated in the Conductor of the Year category at the International Opera Awards.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Faramondo (2009), Rinaldo (2011), Farnace (2011), L’Artaserse (2012), Dorilla in Tempe (2014), Die Zauberflöte (2015), Ariodante (2016), La clemenza di Tito (2018), Orpheus and Eurydice (2019), Meyerbeer’s Gli amori di Teolinda (2019) and Alcina (2022).
Rudy Sabounghi works or has worked for theatre 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 and filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin; and with Anne-Teresa de Keersmaeker and Lucinda Childs for dance. He recently participated in the first performance of Mozart’s Concert Arias at the Opera Ballet Vlandeeren in Antwerp (choreography by De Keersmaeker), in Le Sourire de Darwin at the Théâtre de Nice (directed by Muriel Mayette with Isabella Rossellini), in La Damnation de Faust at the Opéra de Montre-Carlo, directed by Jean-Louis Grinda) and Pelléas et Mélisande at the Trier Opera (directed by Jean-Claude Berutti). He will soon create the sets for On ne badine pas avec l’amour at the Théâtre de Carouge, directed by Jean Liermier. In Lausanne, he collaborated at Vidy on L’Homme difficile, Le Misanthrope (directed by Jean Lassalle) and Phèdre (produced by Luc Bondy). He teaches regularly at ENSATT in Lyon.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Così fan tutte (2018).
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).
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)