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A great triumph (along with Rossini and Bellini) of Italian opera in the first half of the 19th century, Gaetano Donizetti handles buffoonish humour (Don Pasquale) with as much ease as he does melodrama (Lucia di Lammermoor), sometimes to the point of losing himself… and us, to our great delight! L’elisir d’amore is a superb example of this: is one supposed to laugh or cry as this brilliant jack of all trades and master of bel canto artfully creates confusion. Defying stereotypes to better depict life with all its subtle nuances, he offers an incredible show that is simultaneously light, bucolic and (very slightly) tragic for those who know how to let themselves be transported, sometimes reading between the lines, from one emotion to another. Una furtiva lagrima is his most famous aria: a bravura piece that is loved as much as it is feared by all tenors, and whose job it is to make the tears flow… without being excessively sentimental! Be captivated by Nemorino’s tender passion, Adina’s proud (yet sincere) flights of fancy (…che capricciosa io sono), or the delightfully funny plastronnades of Belcore… who is not as modesto as he would have you believe!
First performance at the Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan, 12 May 1832
G. Ricordi Editions & Co. Bühnen- und Musikverlag GmbH, Berlin
Born in Moldova, Valentina Nafornita is one of the most successful sopranos of her generation. Shortly after graduating from the National University of Music in Bucharest, she won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, which launched her international career. As a member of the young ensemble of the Vienna State Opera, she was able to develop a vast repertoire: Musetta (La bohème), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Norina (Don Pasquale), Zerlina, (Don Giovanni), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Clorinda (La Cenerentola) and Oscar (Un ballo in maschera). This repertoire has evolved with her debut as Iolanta (Tchaikovsky) at the Opéra Garnier, as well as her roles as Desdemona (Otello), Luisa Miller, Maria (Simon Boccanegra) and Mimi (La bohème). Her international career has taken her to the Paris Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, among others. She works regularly with prestigious conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Adám Fischer, Louis Langrée, Franz Welser-Möst and Simone Young. His debut album “Romance”, released in 2020 by Alpha, has received critical acclaim. Among the highlights of her 2022/23 season: her return to the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with a performance as Micaela (Carmen) and her debut as Mimi (La bohème) at the Berlin Staatsoper.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Così fan tutte (2019) and Le nozze di Figaro (2021).
German-Turkmen tenor Dovlet Nurgeldiyev joined the Opera Studio of the Hamburg Staatsoper in 2008, where he made a lasting impression on his first night as Fenton in Falstaff, before distinguishing himself the following year in the Stella Maris competition, winning a recording for Deutsche Grammophon. Two years later, he became a member of the Deutsche Grammophon ensemble and has since performed the most important roles. This season, he is Belmonte in a new production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Hamburg Staatsoper, Alfred in Die Fledermaus at the Opéra national de Lyon and makes his debut as Steva in Jenůfa at the Opéra de Rouen Normandie. Last season he made his American debut as Lensky (Eugene Onegin) in Santa Fe and assumed the title role in La clemenza di Tito at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona; in Hamburg he took part in performances of Macbeth, Falstaff, Die Fledermaus, Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni. He has also appeared at the Bayerische Staatsoper and in concert with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (in Verdi’s Requiem), the MDR Orchestra at the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Berlin Rundfunkchor.
The Italian baritone Giorgio Caoduro is rapidly rising to the level of the best singers of his generation. He has performed under the baton of conductors such as Carlo Rizzi, Jesús López Cobos, Riccardo Frizza, Bruno Bartoletti, Daniel Harding, Bruno Campanella, Nicola Luisotti, James Conlon, Michel Plasson, and Zubin Mehta. He has collaborated with directors Pier Luigi Pizzi, Jérôme Savary, Massimo Ranieri, Irina Brook, Sir Peter Hall, Luca Ronconi, Stefano Vizioli, Francisco Negrin, Marco Bellocchio and Laurent Pelly. Recent engagements include Il signor Bruschino and La gazzetta at the Rossini Opera Festival, Roberto Devereux and Adriana Lecouvreur at the Sydney Opera House and Don Giovanni at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari. Released in 2021, his solo album dedicated to Rossini “The Art of Virtuoso Baritone” has received a triumphant reception from the international press and has been nominated for an ICMA 2022 award.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Gianni Schicchi (2004), Il signor Bruschino (2004), Il barbiere di Siviglia (2014) and La Cenerentola (2015).
Born in 1983 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Adrian Sãmpetrean studied there and made his first steps on stage in 2003. He then joined the Munich Opera Studio. He made his debut as Leporello (Don Giovanni) at the 2011 Salzburg Festival, a role he reprised the following year at the Bolshoi in Moscow as part of a tour of La Scala in Milan, then in 2013 at the Staatsoper in Berlin under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. Since then, he has appeared as Alidoro (La Cenerentola) and Leporello at the Paris Opera, as Alidoro at the Vienna Staatsoper, as Banco (Macbeth) and Oberto at La Scala in Milan, as Ramfis (Aida) at the Verona Arena, as Ferrando (Il Trovatore) at the Berlin Staatsoper and at the Salzburg Festival, as Alfonso d’Este (Lucrezia Borgia) at the Hamburg Opera, as Selim (Il turco in Italia) at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, as Leporello and Enrico VIII (Anna Bolena) at the Netherlands Opera Amsterdam, as Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, as Don Giovanni at La Fenice, as Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore) at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and as Lord Stanley (Il viaggio a Reims) at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia. He can be seen on DVD in productions of Il trovatore (Berlin Staatsoper, Daniel Barenboim, Deutsche Grammophon), Aida (Arena de Verona, Bel Air Classiques) and Don Giovanni (The Estates Theatre Prague, Placido Domingo, C Major).
Aurélie Brémond obtained her Master’s degree from the Haute école de musique de Lausanne with Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet in June 2022. She is a prizewinner in several international competitions: the Concours international de Mâcon-Symphonies d’automne, the Concours international de Béziers, and the Concours Leopold Bellan. Her stage credits include Philomèle in Delibes’ Le Roi l’a dit and Princess Laoula in Chabrier’s L’Étoile at Opéra d’Avignon, Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at Opéra de Lausanne and Nouvel Opéra de Fribourg, and Giannetta in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at Opéra de Lausanne.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: L’elisir d’amore (2022), My Fair Lady (2022) and Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon (2023).
After a bachelor’s degree in Italian, Laurène Paternò entered the Haute école de musique de Lausanne and obtained a master’s degree as a soloist in 2019. In this context, she participates in a Swiss musical creation given in Rio de Janeiro on the occasion of the 2016 Olympic Games. She also performed the roles of Blanche de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites) and Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro). She then made her debut as Serpina (La serva padrona) in an Opéra de Lausanne production given in Bhutan in 2018. She performed at the Nouvel Opéra de Fribourg as Sofiya, Yelena and a KGB agent in Russell Hepplewhite’s Laika, the Dog in Space. In 2020, she is part of the program of the Opéra Comique de Paris for a revival of Laika, the Dog in Space. She is also Fille-Fleur in Parsifal at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2021, and Mélusine in a revival of Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde at the Opéra Grand Avignon. She made her debut in 2022 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and at the Théâtre de Caen in the role of Despina (Così fan tutte), a new production by Laurent Pelly and Emmanuelle Haïn, as well as at the Glyndebourne Festival to double the role of Thérèse in Les mamelles de Tirésias by Poulenc (directed by Laurent Pelly). She won the 1st prize in the Kattenburg competition at the Opéra de Lausanne in 2019 and the 2nd prize in the Corsica Lirica competition in 2021.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La serva padrona (Bouthan 2018), Les chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), La belle Hélène (2020) and Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021).
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).
Born on the island of La Réunion, Aslam Safla began studying the violin at the age of six, and began singing pop at sixteen. In 2010, he moved to Tours and began a professional career as a singer in American folk, country and bluegrass bands, as well as in a circus. In 2016, he was introduced to opera singing and entered Jean-François Rouchon’s class at the Conservatoire de Cergy-Pontoise.
He then decided to go professional in the world of opera. He devotes his time to gaining experience in this practice, through opera workshops, summer academies and masterclasses. In January 2020, he won 1st prize in the Voix des Outre-mer competition and joined Leontina Vaduva’s class at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne in September 2020.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021), Werther (2022), L’elisir d’amore (2022), My Fair Lady (2022), Le Domino noir (2023) and Orphée aux Enfers (2023).
Born in Lausanne, Raphaël Hardmeyer began his musical career with the violin, then the viola. After obtaining a master’s degree in law, he began to study singing at the Lausanne Conservatory. Three years later, he joined Gilles Cachemaille’s class at the Haute école de musique de Genève. During the 2019/20 season, he can be seen in Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Die Walkyrie (in concert version) in Evian. In 2020, he benefits from the OperaLab.ch program set up by the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Hautes Écoles de Genève. This season, he performs in a staged version of Messiah at the Théâtre du Jorat and in Die Zauberflöte at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, under the direction of Christophe Rousset.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Ariadne auf Naxos (2019), Semiramide (2022), L’elisir d’amore (2022), 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.
Born in St. Petersburg, Gleb Skvortsov began his musical studies at the age of seven at the famous Glinka College, before entering the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, from which he graduated with a diploma in choral conducting with distinction. After winning the prestigious Evgeny Mravinsky Prize, he continued his studies at the Geneva Conservatory in the conducting class. In 2001, he was awarded a scholarship from the Cercle romand Richard Wagner. He worked as an assistant to Michel Corboz, Dmitri Kitaïenko, Emmanuel Krivine and Fabio Luisi. Between 1998 and 2008, he directed the Chœur de l’Université de Genève, which during his tenure became one of the most prominent choral groups in Geneva. During the same period, he directed the University of Geneva Orchestra, which he himself founded. He has been the instigator and the artistic and musical director of several opera productions, including the Swiss premieres of the musical Moskva, Shostakovich by Cheriomushki, and The Story of the Pope and his Servant Balda by the same composer, as well as a French version of Nino Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze – an opera that he was also called upon to conduct, at a moment’s notice and in its original version, at the Opéra de Lausanne. In 2009, he created the Camerata Venia, an orchestral ensemble composed of young musicians of the French-speaking part of Switzerland, which performs regularly in Geneva.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Il cappello di paglia di Firenze (2006) and Eugene Onegin (2022).
Born in Rome in 1970, Cristian Taraborrelli has been collaborating since the beginning of the 90s in various theatrical projects, in particular with Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, one of the main representatives of the research theater in Italy. Over the years, his prolific activity has seen him involved in various plays and theatrical reviews, allowing him to collaborate with some of the most important personalities of the international artistic world and European cultural centers. He has designed sets and costumes for shows at the National Theater São João de Porto, the Avignon Festival, the Rennes Opera, the Odéon Theater and the Châtelet Theater in Paris, the Strasbourg Opera, the Toulouse Capitole, the Malmö Opera, the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the St. Gallen Opera, La Comédie and the Am Stram Gram Theater in Geneva. At the same time, Cristian Taraborrelli is developing a directing activity, combining visual arts and performances with state-of-the-art stage technologies. In 2019, he staged Kurtág’s Kafka-Fragmente as part of the 55th Festival Nuova Consonanza alla Pelanda in Rome. Recently, he directed Pagliacci at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: L’elisir d’amore (2012)