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New collaboration | Le Cercle littéraireInformation
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Prague, 1787. Mozart was about to leave an indelible mark on the history of opera and the collective imagination of European culture. In Don Giovanni the brilliant composer imbues his music with the heroic and heart-wrenching power of a human soul defying God, society, as well as all the values and institutions of his era. The incomparable overture, with its death-foretelling accents in D minor, foreshadows the final scene where the universal character perishes in the flames of Hell. In between, Don Giovanni – a musical chameleon and legendary seducer with a deep bass voice – is a danger to noblewomen and peasant girls alike, toying with them in an endless quest. The story goes that Casanova lent his art and experience to Mozart’s librettist, Da Ponte: nothing can stop the man who contrives to have all the enemies he has made during his escapades sing Viva la libertà in a quintet at the end of Act I. A powerful tragic and comical musical dualism is reflected in the pairing of this “grand seigneur méchant homme” (as Molière described him) and his commedia dell’arte servant, Leporello.
Italian director Andrea Bernard will treat us to a Don Giovanni who collects women and butterflies, while struggling to forge an identity that eludes him. The musical direction will be entrusted to Corinna Niemeyer, whom Lausanne audiences had the opportunity to discover during Massenet’s Cendrillon (2023–2024). She will thus reunite with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne in her favorite repertoire.
Premiere on October 29, 1787, at the Gräflich Nostitzsches National-Theater in Prague
Published by ©Alkor-Edition Kassel
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne
Opéra de Lausanne Choir
Choir Director Jacopo Facchini
Corinna Niemeyer was appointed Music Director of the Luxembourg Chamber Orchestra in September 2020. Her enthusiasm for presenting music in innovative ways is reflected in her activities, which span the stylistic spectrum from conducting ensembles playing period instruments to presenting world premieres, opera, interdisciplinary projects and the great symphonic repertoire. His raw creativity and infectious desire to share his passion are a hit with audiences. Asserting herself ever more forcefully on the operatic stage, she began the season conducting the UK premiere of George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this at Covent Garden. This followed her pit debut at the Linbury Theatre in autumn 2022 in Oliver Mear’s new production of Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, co-produced with Britten Pears Arts. The 2023/24 season will see her conduct Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in St. Gallen. Her thirst for innovation is reflected in the programs she conducts at the head of the Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg, which this season features works by Haydn, Mozart, Berlioz (Les Nuits d’été with Ian Bostridge) and Ligeti (Mysteries of the Macabre). On the orchestral scene, he has conducted (or will be conducting) the Orchestre de Paris, the Royal Philharmonic Liverpool, the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, the MDR Sinfonieorchester, the Heidelberg Philharmonic, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. She also regularly conducts Les Siècles and Ensemble Modern. In 2022, she made her debut at the Opéra de Lille conducting Les Siècles in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges. She has also conducted Le nozze di Figaro at the Cologne Opera, Le Comte Ory at the Opéra de Metz and, on the same evening at the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, Viktor Ullmann’s one-act opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis and the world premiere of Eugene Birman’s En vertu de…, dedicated to the European Convention on Human Rights.