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
Born in Kiev, Oleksiy Palchykov first studied trumpet and choral singing in his hometown and went on to perfect his skills with Petr Koval at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music. In 2010, he won the Grand Prize in 16th Lydia Abramova “Bella Voce” International Competition in Moscow, the Grand Prize of the “Ivana Alchevskogo” International Competition in Kharkov and the Special Jury Prize of the International Competition for Young Singers in Weikersheim, Germany. In the same year he won the orchestra prize at the Szczecin Tenor Competition in Poland. In 2012, he joined the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris. His engagements have enabled him to sing the roles of Gernando (L’isola disabitata by Haydn) in Noisiel and Chatenay-Malabry; Ecclitico (Il mondo della luna by Haydn); Male Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia), Lensky (Eugene Onegin) at the National Theater in Kiev, Lykov (The Tsar’s Bride); Alfredo (La traviata) with the Kiev Musical Theatre during a tour in Switzerland; Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) in Paris-Bobigny; Messaggero (Aida); Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor) and Scaramuccio (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Opéra Bastille; Pylade (Iphigénie en Tauride) in Saint-Quentin en Yvelines; Ferrando (Così fan tutte) in Paris-Créteil, Lensky at the Garsington Festival; Sinowi (Lady MacBeth von Mzensk); Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and Arturo in Zurich; Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) in Toulon; Grizko (Mussorgsky’s Sorotchintsi Fair); Lensky and Fenton (Falstaff) at the Komische Oper Berlin; Lensky at the Edinburgh Festival; and Cassio (Otello) in Munich. Since May 2017, he has been a member of the Hamburg Staatsoper’s cast. Roles for the 2022/23 season include Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Tamino and Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi) in Hamburg, Mozart’s Requiem (directed by Stéphane Braunschweig) at the Opéra de Bordeaux, Don Ottavio at the Glyndebourne Festival and Saëb (Barkouf) in Zurich.
Born in Belgrade, Serbian soprano Tamara Banješević trained at the Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim and with Edith Wiens at the Juilliard School in New York. She made her professional debut at the age of just 22, playing Anna Reich in the Lustigen Weiber von Windsor at Schloss Weikersheim. She joined the National Theater Mannheim ensemble, which enabled her to take on numerous roles, including those of Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Giulia (La scala di seta), Amenaide (Tancredi), Ännchen, Woglinde, Adele (Die Fledermaus), Nannetta (Falstaff), Zaide, Ninetta (L’Amour des trois Oranges), Valencienne (Die lustige Witwe) and Valter (La Wally). At the same time, she participated in the Mozart Academy of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and took part in in a production of Rosenkavalier with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the Baden-Baden Festival. In September 2018, she joined the company of the Aalto-Theater in Essen, where she sang the roles of Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Micaëla (Carmen), Ännchen (Der Freischütz) under the direction of Tatjana Gürbaca, Eva (Cain, overo il primo umicidio) and Euridice (Gluck’s Orfeo). She made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Fortuna/Damigella in L’incoronazione di Poppea. Recent engagements include Pamina at the National Taichung Theater, Dalinda (Ariodante) in Robert Carsen’s new production at the Opéra de Paris, Woglinde (Das Rheingold, Die Götterdämmerung), Waldvogel (Siegfried), Blumenmädchen and Erster Knappe (Parsifal), as well as 1st Lady (Die Zauberflöte) at the Opéra Bastille.
Conductor Frank Beermann has distinguished himself internationally both on stage and in recordings. His insatiable curiosity for new repertoire and his interest in reinterpreting the great repertoire have earned him numerous awards. The works of Richard Wagner are an essential part of his repertoire. His interpretations of Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Der fliegende Holländer in the “Minden Wagner” projects have been enthusiastically received by international prices. In the last ten years he has conducted complete cycles of symphonic works by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Mahler (excluding the Eighth Symphony) 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 KlassikSommer Hamm festival. From 2007 to 2016, Frank Beermann was Generalmusikdirektor of the Chemnitz Theatre and Principal Conductor of the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie. Recent engagements include debuts with the Athens National Orchestra, Aalto Theater Essen, Philharmonia London, Staatstheater Stuttgart and Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (2014), La bohème (2017), Die Fledermaus (2018), Ariadne auf Naxos (2019) and 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).
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. His roles for the 2022/23 season and beyond include 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. 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 beginning of his collaboration with Jean-Claude Malgoire in April 2015. A graduate of the Conservatoire de Paris (Yves Sotin’s class, 2017), he made a name for himself 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 Biel-Solothurn; Lord Rochefort (Anna Bolena) in Bordeaux, a Lackey (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; First Priest and Second Man-at-Arms (Die Zauberflöte) in Marseille; Leporello (Don Giovanni) in Saint Etienne; Don Basilio in Tours; Zuniga (Carmen) at the Opéra national du Rhin; the Innocent (Yvonne princesse de Bourgogne by Boesmans); Angelotti (Tosca) and Wagner (Faust) at the Opéra de Paris, and Thrond (Hulda by César Franck) on tour with the Palazetto Bru Zane. Highlights of his 2022/23 season include: Colline (La bohème) and the Marquis d’Obigny (La traviata) at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse; Sarastro with Le Concert Spirituel at the Opéra royal de Versailles; Zuniga at the Opéra de Paris; Mathisen (Le Prophète) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Colline at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, as well as numerous concerts in Saint-Etienne and with Les Talens Lyriques. A socially engaged 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 University of Paris 8. He has published a book entitled Musique sans frontière.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Alcina (2022).
Having taken vocal training with Hiroko Kawamichi at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, Yuki Tsurusaki devotes a lot of importance to interpretation, which she notably developed with Armand Deladoëy. She has been on stage since she was a child and is equally at ease in repertoires including song and dance. In opera, she has appeared in The Telephone (Lucy), The Turn of the Screw (Miles), Carmen (Micaëla), as well as in world premieres such as Il gatto con gli stivali by Rinaldo Bellucci. She performs in various festivals in Japan, Russia and the United States. She was awarded the Mosetti scholarship, as well as first prizes at the Vienne en Voix competition in Vivonne and the Léopold Bellan competition in Paris. She has notably studied with Ludovic Tézier, Béatrice Uria-Monzon and Antoine Palloc, among others.
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) and L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021).
Born in Cordoba, Spanish tenor Pablo García-López began his vocal studies at the conservatory of his native city with tenor Juan Luque. He then went on to perfect his skills at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the Centro de Perfeccionamiento Plácido Domingo at the Palau de les Art in Valencia. He completed his training in Berlin with John Norris. In 2020 he was awarded the Bandera de las Artes de Andalucía distinction. In recent years, he has made notable appearances on Spain’s most prestigious stages and made his international debut at opera houses such as the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, the Opéra de Lausanne, the Royal Opera House Muscat and the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, collaborating with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Chailly, Jesús López Cobos and Omer Meir Wellber. He is particularly associated with the Mozart repertoire, playing roles such as Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni).
At Opéra Lausanne: La traviata (2015), Doña Francisquita (2020) 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 Frankfurt Conservatory in the class of Hedwig Fassbender, she made her debut at the Oper Frankfurt, the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the Festival of Young Artists in Bayreuth. Selected by Anna Netrebko, she then sang the role of Gerda (The Snow Queen by Sergei Banevich) at the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt and made her debut at the St. Margarethen Festival in L’elisir d’amore. In 2015 she performed as Costanza (Haydn’s L’isola disabitata) at the Rheingau Musik Festival. She is a regular guest of the Cologne and Berlin philharmonic orchestras, the Gewandhaus Leipzig and the Alte Oper Frankfurt, where she performed under conductors such as Hartmut Haenchen, Sylvain Cambreling, Risto Joost, Marc Soustrot, Andrew Manze and Bertrand de Billy. Since the 2017/18 season she has been a member of the Staatsoper Stuttgart Company. In 2019 she made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival and the BBC Proms as 1st Lady in a new production of Die Zauberflöte. Recently she has played the roles of Freia (Das Rheingold), Ninetta, Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Gerhilde (Die Walküre) and Rusalka at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. Her roles for the 2022/23 season and beyond are: Rusalka and Gutrune (Die Götterdämmerung) in Stuttgart, and Gretchen (Schumann’s Faustszenen) in a stage version at the Opéra de Montpellier.
French soprano Nuada Le Drève studied with Frédéric Gindraux and Jean-Philippe Clerc at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne and with Rainer Trost at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. She perfected her skills in master classes given by Jennifer Larmore, Véronique Gens, Alexia Cousin, Hedwig Fassbender, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Matthias Lademann and Stéphane McLeod. She won an award from the Centre français de promotion lyrique in 2019 and the Prix Jeune Talent at the Béziers International Competition in 2022. During the 2022/23 season, she is the Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte conducted by Pierre Bleuse in Sion and La Fiancée in Stravinsky’s Les Noces conducted by Daniel Reuss.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Pinocchio (2023).
A Franco-Italian mezzo-soprano born in Milan, Béatrice Nani entered the Haute école de musique de Lausanne in 2014 in Brigitte Balleys’ class and obtained her Master’s degree in singing in 2019. She perfected her skills with Marie-Ange Todorovitch and Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet. Passionate about theatre, she trained with Gaëlle Bourgeois and Fiona Chauvin in Paris. She is a laureate of the Concours Enesco et Léopold Bellan in Paris and in 2022 won Third Prize at the Concours international de chant de la ville de Béziers. On stage, she has performed in Bouche à bouche by Maurice Yvain at the Théâtre Déjazet in Paris and in Bottesini’s Requiem at the Victoria Hall in Geneva. She sang the role of Ella Maillart in the first performance of Le Ruisseau noir by Guy-François Leuenberger at the Théâtre du Grütli in Geneva and played Lois in Kiss Me, Kate by Cole Porter at the Théâtre du Galpon in Geneva. In 2022, she made her debut at the Opéra de Tours as La Mère in Le Petit Chaperon rouge composed by Guy-François Leuenberger, as well as in Carmen, for which she played the title role in September in Orbe.
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) and Candide (2022).
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) and My Fair Lady (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.
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 studying art at the École supérieure des Arts décoratifs de Strasbourg (ESAD) and the École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre (ENSATT), Mathieu Crescence worked as a set designer with various theatre companies. In 2010, he servved as assistant costume designer at the Opéra on the world premieres of La forza del destino, Le Roi Arthus, Tosca and Samson et Dalila. In parallel to this activity, he assisted costume designers Dominique Borg (on French musicals) and Christian Gasc (on feature films), before joining the Pierre-André Weitz/Olivier Py duo in 2013 as assistant set designer/costume designer on various productions, a collaboration that is still ongoing. His activities extend far beyond France: in 2017, he worked with Kaspar Glarner on the world premiere of Otello at Covent Garden; of Prokofiev’s L’Ange de feu at the Warsaw National Opera, Lady MacBeth von Mzensk at the Frankfurt Opera, and collaborated with Malgorzata Szczęśniak on several productions by Kristof Warlikowski at the Salzburg Festival, where he has been regularly officiating since 2018. In 2014, he designed the set for Peter Eövös’ Balcon after Genet at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet in Paris with the ensemble Le Balcon conducted by Maxime Pascal, as well as the set for Massenet’s Don César de Bazan three years later at the Opéra de Reims, both directed by Damien Bigourdan. In 2018, he designed the set and costumes for Offenbach’s La Périchole and Carmen in 2019 and Werther in 2021 for Romain Gilbert at the Opéra national de Bordeaux. At the Opéra de Lausanne: Orphée aux Enfers (2023).
Gianfranco Bianchi is a multidisciplinary visual artist. Having started in Miami creating virtual environments for architects and illustrator, he began to experiment with others means to tell stories. He collaborated with various artist through the David Lynch Foundation and began work on an animated graphic novel that made the film festivals rounds, illustrated a published companion comic book, as well as open the doors to bigger projects. After dabbling in fashion photography between Miami, NYC and Tokyo he began to merge the digital world with the practical world he was currently working in. In doing so he worked through projection mapping in live event and made a hybrid cinemagraph short that brought him to the Visual effects field.
Combining the skills he acquired through the past years he was able to work on a few award winning animated films, as head illustrator, animator and creative director for various project with Kijik Multimedia. His next goal was within the interactive medium and by combining everything he has learned, he now as been able to create interactive experiences based around Augmented reality and real time animation projects.
He now works with the Opera de Lausanne to create animations, visual effects, and interactive experiences through the Opera’s own mobile application.
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).