This production was made possible thanks to the generosity of Lady Elisabeth Ampthill, patron of the Opéra de Lausanne
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Constance tells us that during the last days of his life, in the autumn of 1791, Mozart followed from his bed, watch in hand, each performance of his Zauberflöte by his friend Emanuel Schikaneder’s Theater auf der Wieden, humming its emblematic arias… Could he have offered more beautiful proof of his attachment to this now legendary score? In this opera following on from the very aristocratic (and Italian) “Da Ponte trilogy”, the composer returned to the popular theatre genre that suited him so well, ideally combining childlike enchantment (embodied by the characters of Papageno and Papagena) and spiritual initiation (through the quest of Tamino and Pamina). This emblematic work is brought to the stage by the director of the Opéra de Lausanne, Éric Vigié, who, for this new production, wanted to sand off the successive layers of intellectual varnish that have accumulated over the centuries in the collective imagination, in order to rediscover its original patina of magic and childlike naivety. How could this be done? By shifting the narrative focus to the Three Boys and dressing the whole thing in oriental silks: a guaranteed means of bringing a modern vibe!
First performance at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, September 30, 1791
Published by Bärenreiter – Verlag Kassel – Basel – London – New York – Praha
Ukrainian tenor Oleksiy Palchykov first studied trumpet and choral singing in his native Kiev, then went on to perfect his skills with Petr Koval at the National Academy of Music. Winner of several prizes, he was a finalist at Cardiff’s Singers of the World in 2015. In 2012, he joined the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris. He sang Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) in Paris-Bobigny, Scaramuccio (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor) in Paris-Bastille, Sinowi (Lady Macbeth de Mtsensk) and Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor) in Zurich, Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) in Toulon, Grizko (Mussorgsky’s Sorotchintsy Fair) at Berlin’s Komische Oper, Lensky (Eugene Onegin) at the Edinburgh Festival, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio and Janáček’s Otče náš with the Münchner Rund- funkorchester, Cassio (Otello) in Munich. A member of the Hamburg Staatsoper company, he has appeared in Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Eurimaco (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), Paris (La Belle Hélène), Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Cassio, Beppe (Pagliacci), Froh (Das Rheingold), Lensky, Kudrjas (Katia Kabanova), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Fenton (Falstaff), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Alfred (Die Fledermaus), and Belmonte. He has recorded the complete melodies of Nikolai Medtner with Iain Burnside for Delphian. Recent performances include Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi) in Hambourg, Mozart’s Requiem (directed by Stéphane Braunschweig) at the Opéra de Bordeaux, Lensky and Fenton at the Komische Oper, Don Ottavio in Zurich and at the Glyndebourne Festival. Projects for the 2023/24 season and beyond: Saëb (Barkouf) in Zurich, Narraboth (Salome), Rinuccio, Edgardo, Belmonte, Alfredo and Tito (La clemenza di Tito) in Hamburg, Rinuccio in Cardiff, Rodolfo at the Komische Oper and Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) at the Garsington Festival.
Born in Belgrade, soprano Tamara Banješević trained with Edith Wiens at the Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim and the Juilliard School in New York. She made her professional debut at the age of just twenty-two, playing Anna Reich in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor at Schloss Weikersheim. She joined the ensemble of the National Theater Mannheim, which enabled her to take on numerous roles, including Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Giulia (La scala di seta), Amenaide (Tancredi), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Woglinde (Dar Rheingold), Adele (Die Fledermaus), Nannetta (Falstaff), Zaide, Ninetta (L’Amour des trois oranges), Valencienne (Die lustige Witwe) and Valter (La Wally). In parallel, she takes part in the Académie Mozart at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, takes part in a production of Rosenkavalier with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the Baden-Baden Festival, and makes her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Fortuna / Damigella in L’incoronazione di Poppea. From 2018 to 2021, she is a member of the company of Essen’s Aalto-Musiktheater, where she is Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Micaëla (Carmen), Ännchen (under the direction of Tatjana Gürbaca) and Euridice (Gluck’s Orfeo), then, from 2022, guest roles as Gilda (Rigoletto) and Eva (Cain, overo il primo umicidio). She is a regular guest at the Opéra de Paris, playing Woglinde, the Waldvogel in Siegfried, a Blumenmädchen and the Erster Knappe in Parsifal, as well as the First Lady in Zauberflöte at Bastille, most recently Dalinda (Ariodante) in Robert Carsen’s new production at Garnier. Other recent engagements include Woglinde and Gretel at the Stuttgart Opera, and Fiordiligi at the Kiel Theater. In the 2023/24 season, in addition to her debut at the Opéra de Lyon in Mendelssohn’s Elias directed by Calixto Bieito, she will appear as Fiordiligi and Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea) at the Cologne Opera.
The works of Richard Wagner are an essential part of Frank Beermann’s repertoire. His performances of Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Der fliegende Holländer as part of the “Minden Wagner” projects have been enthusiastically received by the local and international press. During the years 2015-2019, Frank Beermann conducted no fewer than 36 performances of the four operas in the famous Tetralogy. In recent years, he has devoted himself more intensively to the great symphonic works of Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and, in particular, Anton Bruckner. He was soon able to add the “completed” 9th Symphony, including its reconstructed 4th movement, to his repertoire. Over the past ten years, he has conducted complete cycles of symphonic works by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Mahler (with the exception of the Eighth) and Strauss, as well as the complete Mozart piano concertos with Matthias Kirschnereit and the Bamberger Sinfonikern; he is currently working on the complete Mozart symphonies in a new concert series for the Hamm Klassiksommer, with performances spread over several years. From 2007 to 2016, Frank Beermann was Generalmusik-direktor of the Chemnitz Theater and Principal Conductor of the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie. Recent engagements include debuts at the helm of the Athens National Orchestra and London Philharmonia, as well as in the pits of Essen’s Aalto-Musiktheater and Stuttgart’s Staatstheater. In January 2020, he made his highly successful debut at the Capitole de Toulouse, where he conducted a new production of Parsifal. A new production of Elektra brings him back to the same venue in June 2021, with the same success. His plans for the 2023/24 season include Parsifal in Minden and Die Frau ohne Schatten in Toulouse.
At Opéra de Lausanne:
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (2014), La bohème (2017), Die Fledermaus (2018), Ariadne auf Naxos (2019) et Le nozze di Figaro (2021).
A lyric soprano born in Darmós, in the province of Tarragona, Spain, Sara Blanch trained at the Conservatorio Superior del Liceu in Barcelona. She made her debut at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro in 2013. Winner of numerous international prizes (Montserrat Caballé Competition in 2014, Josep Mirabent i Magrans de Sitges in 2015 and Tenor Viñas in 2016), she has since performed on the most important stages: Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro de la Zarzuela and Teatro Real in Madrid, Teatro Regio in Turin, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Salle Gaveau in Paris, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, Wiener Staatsoper, Rome Opera and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Chorégies d’Orange… Also active in the field of oratorio and melody, she has more than 27 operatic roles in her repertoire, including Norina (Don Pasquale), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Matilde (Rossini’s Matilde di Shabran), Fiorilla (Il turco in Italia), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), The Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), Adele (Count Ory) and Ophelia (Hamlet).
Canadian-born Marie-Eve Munger won 1st prize for opera at the Marmande Competition. She made her debut at the Opéra de Metz in the roles of Ophelia (Hamlet) and Nannetta (Falstaff), and took part in the premiere of Pastorale at the Théâtre du Châtelet, where she went on to star in Villa-Lobos’ Magdalena in 2010. Her career launched in the USA and Europe, she made her debut at La Scala in Milan and at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in Vierte Madg (Elektra, directed by Patrice Chéreau), a role she reprised at the Liceu in Barcelona and at the BBC Proms in London, conducted by Semyon Bychkov. She was Lakmé in Saint-Étienne and in concert in Munich, Isabelle (Le Pré aux Clercs by Ferdinand Hérold), Princess Elsbeth (Fantasio) and Musette in “Bohème notre jeunesse” at the Opéra Comique. More recently, she was Ophélie in Nantes and Rennes, Countess Adèle (Le Comte Ory) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) in Toulon, and La Fée (Cendrillon) at the Chicago Lyric Opera. Attached to the contemporary repertoire, she took part in the premiere of Guillaume Vincent’s The Second Woman at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, and played La Fée in Philippe Boesmans’ Pinocchio in Aix-en-Provence, La Monnaie de Munt and Dijon. At the Festival Musica in Strasbourg, she can be heard in a work by Mauro Lanza, and in Judith et le Cantique de Pâques by Honegger in Utrecht. More recently, she has appeared as Le Rossignol (Die Vögel by Walter Braun-fels) in Strasbourg, Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) in Lille, La Reine de la Nuit in Strasbourg, La Fée et Arlette (Die Fledermaus) in Limoges, Adina (L’elisir d’amore) at the Florentine Opera (USA). Other projects include the title role in Auber’s Manon Lescaut at the Teatro Regio in Turin and Blondchen (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) in Saint-Étienne.
At Opéra de Lausanne: My Fair Lady (2015), Ariadne auf Naxos (2019) and Le Domino noir (2023)
Born in Rodgau, Germany, baritone Björn Bürger studied singing and received prizes at the Frankfurt Conservatory in the class of Hedwig Fassbender. He attended master classes by Kurt Moll, Helmut Deutsch and Christoph Pregardien. At the beginning of his young career, he performed Argante (Rinaldo) at the Handel Festival in Karlsruhe and Osmin (Zaïde) on tour in Germany. He was a member of Oper Frankfurt from 2013 to 2018. In parallel, he made his debut at the Opéra de Paris as Papageno (Die Zauberflöte) in a production by Robert Carsen) and in the title role of Don Giovanni at the Oslo Opera House. He has also performed the roles of Papageno and Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at the Glyndebourne Festival; Falke (Die Fledermaus) in Munich (conducted by Kirill Petrenko) and in Lausanne; Figaro at the Semperoper Dresden and in StuttgartWolfram (Tannhäuser) in Amsterdam, Posa (Don Carlos) in Stuttgart; Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) at La Monnaie in Brussels; Lescaut in Hamburg. He recently appeared as Andrei Bolkonsky (War and Peace) in Geneva, Papageno, Falke and Count Almaviva in Stuttgart; the Barber (Die schweigsame Frau) in Munich; and Guglielmo (Guillaume Tell) in Strasbourg, Belcore (L’elisir d’amore) and Figaro in Stuttgart, Falke in Hamburg, Frédéric (Lakmé) and Gaveston/Fremdling (Lessons in Love and Violence by George Benjamin) in Zurich, and Heerrufer (Lohengrin) in Amsterdam. Among his roles for the 2023/24 season and beyond: Pelléas in Geneva, Lescaut (Manon) in Turin, Frank/Fritz (Die tote Stadt) in Zurich, Count Almaviva in Amsterdam. Björn Bürger is a laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation (Live Music Now).
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Die Fledermaus (2018).
Guilhem Worms won the “Talents lyriques de Reims, Voix sacrées” competition, which marked the start of his collaboration with Jean-Claude Malgoire in April 2015. A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire (class of Yves Sotin, 2017), he made his mark as Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Palemon (Thaïs) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Since then, he has appeared as Gottfried (Les Fées du Rhin) in Tours and Bienne-Soleure, Lord Rochefort (Anna Bolena) in Bordeaux, Un Laquais (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the First Priest and Second Man-at-Arms (Die Zauberflöte) in Marseille, Leporello (Don Giovanni) in Saint-Étienne, Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia) in Tours, L’Innocent (Yvonne princesse de Bourgogne by Boesmans and Angelotti), Zuniga (Carmen) at Opéra du Rhin and Opéra de Paris, Colline (La bohème) and Marquis d’Obigny (La Traviata) at Capitole de Toulouse, Mathisen (Le Prophète by Meyerbeer) at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Zoroastro (Les Génies de Mlle Duval) at Opéra Royal de Versailles. Projects for the 2023/24 season include Masetto (Don Giovanni) and Un Mandarin (Turandot) at Opéra de Paris and Colline in Saint-Étienne. In recent years, Guilhem Worms has formed a duo with his wife Camille Delaforge (harpsichordist, pianist and conductor), within which they devote themselves to the creation of original recitals: “La dame de mes songes” with Ronald Martin Alonso (popular and learned Franco-Spanish), “Mozart et Salieri” alongside Karolos Zouganelis, and “Près de mon cœur” with Raphaël Cottin (French melodies). A committed artist, Guilhem Worms has been working regularly for several years with people suffering from mental illness at the Conservatoire des deux vallées, and also holds a degree in ethnomusicology from the Université Paris 8.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Alcina (2022).
Yuki Tsurusaki received her vocal training from Hiroko Kawamichi at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne. From an early age, she has loved the stage: practicing the piano as well as dance, she is an artist equally at ease in both the danced and sung repertoires. Keen to touch her audience, she attaches great importance to interpretation and her relationship with the body, which she has developed in particular with Armand Deladoëy and Enmando. She won the Mosetti scholarship during her studies, as well as first prizes at the Vienne en Voix and Léopold Bellan competitions in Paris. In the operatic repertoire, she sings the roles of Lucy in Menotti’s The Telephone, Miles in The Turn of The Screw, Micaëla and Frasquita in Carmen, as well as creations such as Il gatto con gli stivali by Rinaldo Bellucci at the Turin Opera. She performs at various festivals in Japan, Russia and the United States. She is currently perfecting her vocal skills with the likes of Ludovic Tézier, Béatrice Uria-Monzon, Antoine Palloc and Nadine Denize.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Les Zoocrates by Thierry Besançon (2017), Die Fledermaus (2018), Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021), Le Petit Chaperon rouge by Guy-François Leuenberger (2021), L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021), Orphée aux Enfers (2023).
Born in Cordoba, Andalusian tenor Pablo García López began his vocal studies at his hometown conservatory with tenor Juan Luque. He went on to perfect his vocal skills at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Plácido Domingo Advanced Training Center at the Palacio de las Artes in Valencia. He completed his training in Berlin with John Norris. In recent years, he has made acclaimed appearances on Spain’s main stages, leading to international debuts at opera houses such as the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, the Opéra Royal de Muscat, the Palais des Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia and the Capitole de Toulouse. He has collaborated with Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Chailly, Jesús López Cobos and Omer Meir Wellber, among others. In the 2023/24 season, he reprises the role of Pedro in Jesús Torres’ contemporary opera Tránsito in Valencia, which he premiered in Madrid in 2021, portrays Paco Vegellana in Marisa Machado’s La Regenta at Madrid’s Teatro Real, and performs baroque repertoire in concert with the Forma Antiqva ensemble at the Santander Festival, as well as Spanish songs with the orchestra of his native Cordoba. His fresh, delicately expressive voice naturally associates him with the Mozartean repertoire: he was Ferrando in Così fan tutte at Málaga’s Teatro Cervantes, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at Córdoba’s Gran Teatro, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at Oviedo Opera. In summer 2022, he performed the role of the First Senator in Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian at the Teatro Real and the Castell de Peralada Festival. His first solo album entitled “Rutas” with pianist Aurelio Viribay was released in 2020, featuring 20th-century Spanish melodies. Her discography also includes Turandot conducted by Zubin Mehta (Decca), La bohème conducted by Riccardo Chailly (Accentus) and Lorenzo Palomo’s Sinfonía Córdoba conducted by Jesús López Cobos (Naxos).
At Opéra de Lausanne: La Traviata (2015) and Le nozze di Figaro (2021)
Esther Dierkes is a prizewinner of the Richard Wagner Verband, the Cusanuswerk Foundation, the Da Ponte Foundation and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation (Live Music Now). During her studies at the Frankfurt Conservatory in Hedwig Fassbender’s class, she debuted at the Frankfurt Opera, the Darmstadt Staatstheater and the Bayreuth Festival of Young Artists. Selected by Anna Netrebko, she went on to sing Gerda (Sergei Banevitch’s The Snow Queen) at Eisenstadt’s Parais Esterházy and made her debut at the St. Margrethen Festival in L’elisir d’amore. In 2015, she performed Costanza (Haydn’s L’isola disabitata) at the Rheingau Music Festival. Since the 2017/18 season, she has been a member of the Stuttgart Opera company. There, she has already sung Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), the leading female role in the world premiere of Erdbeben. Träume by Toshio Hosokawa, Mimi (La bohème), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) and Ninetta (L’Amour des trois oranges). In 2019, she made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival and the BBC Proms as Première Dame (Die Zauberflöte). Recently, she sang Freia (Das Rheingold), Ninetta, Gretel, Gerhilde (Die Walküre) and Rusalka (title role) at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. Her plans for the 2023/24 season and beyond: Gutrune (Götterdämmerung) and Rusalka in Stuttgart, as well as the title role in Jenůfa in Stuttgart
Born in 1998, French soprano Nuada Le Drève began her musical studies on the violin. She continued her lyric studies in the class of Frédéric Gindraux and Jean-Philippe Clerc at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, where she obtained her Master’s degree in 2023. She is currently studying with Hedwig Fassbender and Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet.
Curious about the German language and repertoire, she studied for a semester in Rainer Trost’s class at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (MDW).
She perfected her technique in Master Classes with Birgid Steinberger, Jennifer Larmore, Véronique Gens, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Matthias Lademann, Markus Hadulla and Stephan McLeod. In April 2024, she took part in the Master Class of the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie (IMA) directed by Edith Wiens and Tobias Truniger in Neumarkt, Germany.
She was awarded the Prix Tremplin 2023 by the Leenaards Foundation. She has won several prizes in competitions such as 3rd prize at the Concours international de chant de Nîmes in 2023, the Jeune talent prize at the 35th Concours international de chant de Béziers and the Jeune espoir prize from the Centre français de promotion lyrique in 2019.
She made her debut as a soloist in the role of Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte directed by Pierre Bleuse in Sion (CH), La Fée in Pinocchio by Gloria Bruni at the Opéra de Lausanne and La Fiancée in Les Noces by Stravinsky under the baton of Daniel Reuss at the Théâtre du Jorat.
For the 2023/24 season, she sings the title role in Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon at the Opéra de Lausanne, Zweite Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Anna in Verdi’s Nabucco at the same opera house. She performs in concert and recital at numerous venues, including the Opéra de Montpellier, and collaborates regularly with the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
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).
Born in France, tenor Maxence Billiemaz began singing in Paris with the Manécanterie des Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois. He continued his musical studies at the Haute école de musique de Genève in Stuart Patterson’s class. He has appeared on stage as Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Bastien (Bastien und Bastienne) and Demo (Il Giasone). He also participated in the recording of Ascanio by Camille Saint-Saëns at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and has performed in musicals, playing Bill Calhoun in Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate and Clifford Bradshaw in John Kander’s Cabaret. He sings as a soloist in ensembles such as La Cappella Mediterranea, the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, the Chœur de Chambre de Namur and Les Talens Lyriques.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021), Werther (2022), My Fair Lady (2022), Cendrillon (2023).
Adrien Djouadou began singing in Avignon in Beatrix Tarchini’s class, and went on to perfect his vocal skills in the Atelier Lyrique classes of Valérie Marestin and Pierre Catala. He obtained his DEM from the CRR de Paris in Guillemette Laurens’ class. He obtained his master’s degree in singing from the Haute école de musique de Lausanne in the class of Frédéric Gindraux and Jean-Philippe Clerc. He has also worked with Regina Werner, Françoise Tillard and Élène Golgevit. He sings as a soloist at the Opéra d’Avignon (L’Ancien in Charpentier’s La Pastorale de Noël in 2017 and Judas in Éric Breton’s Le Messie du peuple chauve in 2020, at the Grand Palais in Paris (Tahua in Colson’s L’Esprit du feu in 2018), at the Fabrique Opéra Avignon Provence (Zuniga in Carmen in 2018) and in Lugano (bass solo in Stravinsky’s Threni in 2021). In 2023, he is soloist in Stravinsky’s Les Noces, conducted by Daniel Reuss.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Doña Francisquita (2019)
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.
Pascal Mayer conducts the Pro Arte Choir of Lausanne, the Chamber Choir of the University of Fribourg and the Collegium Musicum of Lucerne. For a long time he was in charge of teaching music at the Collège Sainte-Croix in Fribourg, and today he teaches choral conducting at the Hoch-schule-Musik in Lucerne. With his various ensembles, he explores the great works, from Monteverdi’s Vespers and Bach’s Mass in B to Britten’s War Requiem and Favre’s Requiem. He has also premiered numerous new works (Mettraux, Charrière, Michel, Haselbach, Rütti, Flury). Pascal Mayer collaborates regularly with the OCL, the OCF, the Sinfonietta de Lausanne as well as with early music ensembles. He regularly prepares choirs for the Opéra de Lausanne and for Lyrica in Neuchâtel.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Ariodante (2006), Don Giovanni (2017), Die Zauberflöte (2015), La Clemenza di Tito (2018), Così fan tutte (2018).
After receiving a grant from the French Ministry of Culture in 1982 and 1983 for training in opera directing, Éric Vigié worked as assistant and director at the Opéra de Nice under Pierre Médecin between 1983 and 1992, and at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence between 1986 and 1990. He has worked with some of the most famous opera directors, including Margarita Wallmann, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Georges Lavaudant, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Pet Halmen, Daniel Mesguich and Nicolas Joel. Since 1991, he has directed over a hundred productions in France and abroad: Opéra de Nice, Festival de Strasbourg, Capitole de Toulouse, Teatro Colón (centenary show in 2008), Teatro Municipal de Santiago del Chile, Teatro de la Zarzuela, Dublin Opera, Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky in St. Petersburg, Buka Kaikan in Tokyo, Opéra Comique, Opéra royal de Wallonie, Kingdom of Bhutan. .. At Madrid’s Teatro Real, he directed and staged the 150th anniversary show in July 2000. From March 1997 to September 2002, Éric Vigié was artistic coordinator and assistant to the General Director of the Teatro Real. From 2002 to 2004, he was the first foreign artistic director to head one of Italy’s twelve national theaters, Teatro Verdi in Trieste. Since July 1, 2005, he has been Director of the Opéra de Lausanne. In 2010, he created the Opéra de Lausanne’s Route Lyrique, and was artistic director of the Avenches Opera Festival from 2011 to 2016.
After studying art at the Haute école des arts décoratifs de Strasbourg (HEAD) and graduating from the École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre (ENSATT), Mathieu Crescence worked from 2010 to 2016 as assistant costume designer at the Opéra de Paris on the creations of La forza del destino, Chausson’s Le Roi Arthus, Tosca (directed by Pierre Audi) and Samson et Dalila. At the same time, he assists film costume designers Dominique Borg and Christian Gasc. In 2013, he joined the Pierre-André Weitz/Olivier Py duo as assistant set designer/costume designer on various productions, a collaboration that continues to this day. In 2017, after serving as costume assistant to Kaspar Glarner for Verdi’s Otello at Covent Garden, he began an artistic collaboration with him in 2018 on Prokofiev’s L’Ange de feu at the Warsaw Opera, followed in 2019 by Mtsensk’s Lady Macbeth at the Frankfurt Opera and Les Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Vienna Staatsoper in 2022. From 2018 to 2021, he assists Malgorzata Szczęśniak on costume design for several stagings by Kristof Warlikowski at the Salzburg Festival: Hans Werner Henze’s Les Bassarides, Elektra and Macbeth. In 2014, he designed the sets for Peter Eövös’ Balcon at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet in Paris, and Massenet’s Don César de Bazan at the Opéra de Reims, both directed by Damien Bigourdan. From 2018 to 2021, he designed the sets and costumes for La Périchole, Carmen and Werther, all productions directed by Romain Gilbert and presented at the Opéra de Bordeaux. In 2024, he initiated a collaboration with Robert Carsen as assistant costume designer for Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival, before co-designing the set for Janáček’s Les Voyages de Monsieur Brouček, a co-production between the opera houses of Brno, Madrid’s Teatro Real and Berlin’s Staatsoper.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Orphée aux Enfers (2023).
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.
Gianfranco Bianchi is a multidisciplinary visual artist. After starting out in Miami creating virtual spaces for architects and illustrators, he began experimenting with other means of storytelling. He collaborated with various artists through the David Lynch Foundation and worked on an animated graphic novel that toured film festivals and illustrated an accompanying comic strip that was published. After working in fashion photography between Miami, New York and Tokyo, he began to merge the digital world with the practical world in which he worked. He worked on projection mapping for live events and directed a short hybrid film that led him into the field of visual effects. Combining the skills he had acquired over the past few years, he was able to work on a number of award-winning animated films, as chief illustrator, animator and creative director on various projects with Kijik Multimedia. His next focus was the interactive medium, and by combining everything he learned, he was able to create interactive experiences based on augmented reality and real-time animation projects. He now creates animations, visual effects and interactive experiences on the Opéra de Lausanne’s mobile app.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Semiramide (2022) et Eugène Onéguine (2022)
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)
After her formation as a theatre costume designer, Amélie Reymond was hired at the Lausanne Opera as a seamstress and stylist from 2002 to 2009. She is involved in the costume production for various opera productions. Early in her career she was also entrusted with the complete production of the costumes for Les moutons bleus, in 2008, and for L’enfant et les sortilèges, in 2010. She opened her own studio in 2007, where she creates and directs costumes for various theatres, musicals, dances and exhibitions. She was appointed Assistant Manager of the Costumes Department at the Opéra de Lausanne in 2009, then Head of the Costumes Department in 2016. From 2012 to 2016, she was also directing the costumes for Avenches Opéra; she worked as costume assistant for Carmen, in 2014, and signed her first opera costume creation in 2015 for Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Opéra de Lausanne: she created the costumes for La Belle de Cadix (Route Lyrique 2016), Les Zoocrates (2017) and Les chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019).