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with its lovers hiding in wardrobes and the romanticism of Alfred de Musset, that master of true feeling who strikes an arrow straight to the heart with his beautiful pages dedicated to love. In 1907, the famous Parisian duo Caillavet and Flers brilliantly drew on Musset’s pay Le Chandelier to create a delightful libretto. In order to keep her love affair with Captain Clavaroche as discreet as possible, the beautiful Jacqueline is looking for a naïve decoy to deflect the suspicions of her husband, the lawyer Maître André. Her choice falls on the tender Fortunio, fresh from his native village.
André Messager, then director of the Opéra-Comique, created an exquisitely charming opera in four acts, a score as supple and delicate as shimmering water. The palette of subtle nuances does not exclude mischief and passion, which remain gallant and witty.
Messager’s refined music is finally being performed at the Opéra de Lausanne. Returning to his home town for the occasion, young conductor Marc Leroy-Calatayud leads the Sinfonietta de Lausanne in this sweet gem of French opera. Elegantly accompanied by Christian Lacroix for the costumes and Éric Ruf (General Administrator of the Comédie-Française) for the sets, Denis Podalydès (member of the Comédie-Française) reveals the truth of the characters through his staging: this graceful setting carries us back to the Belle Époque. It is a pleasure to welcome him to the Opéra de Lausanne for the first time.
First performance June 5, 1907 at the Opéra Comique, Paris
Choudens Editions
The French tenor Jean Miannay studied singing in Lausanne with Brigitte Balleys and in Berlin in the class of Scot Weir. He distinguished himself in 2018 at the 4th Raymond Duffaut Competition, where he won the grand prize. Following this, he won various awards at the Clermont-Ferrand Competition, the Kattenburg Competition, as well as the 2nd Vienna International Music Competition. His young lyric voice leads him to interpret roles such as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Beppe (Pagliacci), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Alfredo (La traviata), Vincent (Mireille), or Des Grieux (Manon). In 2018, he made his first steps at the Lausanne Opera, where he performs regularly thereafter. He sings in France at the operas of Massy, Avignon and Clermont-Ferrand, as well as at the Chorégies d’Orange for the fourth consecutive year. In 2022, he made his German debut at the Theater Magdeburg in a production of Orpheus in der Unterwelt. Curious by nature, he also flourishes in contemporary creation as well as in chamber music. He has performed Benjamin Britten’s Illuminations and Serenade for horn and tenor, Janáček’s Diary of the Missing and Schumann’s Dichterliebe. He is expected this summer as Remendado (Carmen) at the Chorégies d’Orange and joins the Opéra Studio du Rhin for the 2023/24 season.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon (2018), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (2019), Rinaldo (2020), L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021), Semiramide, Eugene Onegin and L’elisir d’amore (2022).
After gaining masters degrees in music composition and musicology in Geneva, Benoît Capt trained as a singer at the HMT Mendelssohn in Leipzig (concert masters), then at the HEMU in Lausanne with Gary Magby (soloist masters). Winner of several international competitions (Lyon, Dortmund, Weiden, Marmande, Toulouse), in 2008 he received the Prix du Cercle des Amis de l’OSR. For the past twenty years, he has performed in opera and concert in a repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music, under conductors such as Theodor Guschlbauer, Stefano Ranzani, Hervé Niquet, Arie van Beek, Frank Beermann, Roberto Rizzi-Brignoli, Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon, Jean-Yves Ossonce and Diego Fasiolis. His recital partners include pianists such as Phillip Moll, Eric Schneider, Alexis Golovine and Michel Dalberto.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: The Telephone (2006), Carmen (2008), L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (2010), Pimpinone (2010), Die Zauberflöte (2010 and 2015), Die Lustigen Weiber (2014), Le Petit Prince (2015), Faust (2016), La Bohème (2017), Simon Boccanegra (2018) and Le petit Chaperon rouge (2021).
Anouk Molendijk, mezzo-soprano, is part of a new generation of artists who are inclined to question their practice and traditions in order to open them to new forms of expression. Passionate about 19th century poetry and contemporary theater, she obtained a master’s degree in modern French and comparative literature in Geneva in 2012. In June 2017, she obtained a master’s degree in vocal interpretation in Lausanne. She sang, among others, the roles of Jenny in Weill’s L’Opéra de Quat’sous (Théâtre du Galpon, 2013), the Child in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges (Métropole, Lausanne, 2014), Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw (Théâtre du Galpon), and Mrs. M. M. in The Witch of the Night (Théâtre du Galpon). Grose in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (Lausanne, 2014), Anna I in Weill’s Die sieben Todsünden (Geneva), Erika Mann / Renée Schwarzenbach in Le Ruisseau noir by Guy-François Leuenberger and Elsa Rooke (Théâtre du Grütli, 2015) and more recently, Bianca in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with the Proteus Ensemble at the Théâtre du Grütli and Une compagne de l’Infante in Zemlinsky’s Le Nain at the Opéra de Lille with the Ensemble Ictus and at the Opéra de Rennes. In the contemporary repertoire, she performed the role of Die Dunkle Dame in Reimann’s Die Gespenstersonate with the Ensemble Contrechamps in May 2014, and then was invited to sing Auf die ruhige Nacht-Zeit by Klaus Huber. She is currently continuing her training with Malcolm Walker and Luisa Castellani.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Cinderella (2018).
Born in Lausanne to a French father and a Bolivian mother, Marc Leroy-Calatayud was recently appointed associate conductor of the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève for the 2022/23 season, after having held the position of artist-in-residence at the Orchestre national de Cannes during the 2021/22 season. He worked as assistant conductor at the Opéra national de Bordeaux from 2016 to 2019. A recipient of a scholarship from the Akademie Musiktheater Heute (2018-2021), he studied conducting in Vienna and Zurich with Mark Stringer and Johannes Schlaefli. His symphonic projects for the 2022/23 season include debuts with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and the Kanazawa Orchestra Ensemble, as well as re-invitations to the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and the Real Filharmonía de Galicia. A passionate devotee of opera, he is developing a vast repertoire ranging from Handel and Mozart to Ravel, Weill and Rihm. He will soon be conducting Reynaldo Hahn’s musical Ô mon bel inconnu at the Opéra de Tours and at the Opéra de Rouen. Recent collaborations include L’Elisir d’amore at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, La Légende du Roi Dragon by Arthur Lavandier, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Mârouf, savetier du Caire by Henri Rabaud at the Opéra national de Bordeaux, and Die sieben Todsünden by Kurt Weill with the Ensemble Nomade. He has also worked as an assistant on numerous productions, such as Les Troyens at the Bayerische Staatsoper (Daniele Rustioni), Platée and Œdipe at the Opéra de Paris (Marc Minkowski, Ingo Metzmacher), and Jakob Lenz at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (Ingo Metzmacher). Marc Leroy-Calatayud is a fervent advocate of music education and outreach projects. In 2009, he founded a youth orchestra, the Orchestre Quipasseparlà, with the aim of finding new ways of making music accessible to all. He has organised concerts in hospitals, old people’s homes and homeless shelters.
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.
Born in Arles in 1951, and after studying art history, Christian Lacroix turned to the stage, his childhood dream, after a long detour in the world of haute couture (1980 to 2009), which he undertook at the same time as his work as a costume and set designer for the theatre, opera and ballet, at the Opéra Garnier, the Monnaie in Brussels, the Comédie-Française, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Bouffes du Nord, the Metropolitan in New York, the Festival of Aix-en-Provence, the Opéra Comique, the Capitole in Toulouse, as well as the opera houses of Strasbourg, Vienna, Berlin and Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Graz, St. Gallen, Frankfurt and Salzburg. He was awarded the Molière for costume design for Phèdre in 1996 and for Cyrano de Bergerac in 2007. In parallel, he developed an activity as an industrial designer (TGV Atlantique, tramways in Montpellier) and as an exhibition designer. In 2021, with La vie parisienne, he embarked on his first opera production, in collaboration with Laurent Delvert, director, Romain Gilbert, author of numerous productions, and Glyslein Lefever, choreographer. In 2022, he designed the sets and costumes for Cinderella at the Stockholm Opera.
At the Opéra de Lausanne : Le nozze di Figaro (2021) and Werther (2022).
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.