L’ELISIR D’AMORE

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, Valentina was able to develop a wide repertoire: Musetta (La bohème), Susanna (Lenozze di Figaro), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Norina (Don Pas- quale), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Clorinda (La Cenerentola) and Oscar (Un ballo in maschera). This repertoire evolved with her debut as Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at the Opéra Garnier, as well as with 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.

At the Opéra de Lausanne, she has performed in: Così fan tutte (2019) and Le nozze di Figaro (2021).

Dovlet Nurgeldiyev, a German-Turkmen tenor, joined the Opera Studio of the Hamburg Staatsoper in 2008, where he made a lasting impression on his first night as Fenton in Falstaff. Two years later, he became a member of the ensemble at the Hamburg Staatsoper and has been singing in top roles ever since. This season he performs Belmonte in a new production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Hamburg Staatsoper, as well as 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 USA debut as Lensky (Eugene Onegin) in Santa Fe and performed the title role in La clemenza di Tito at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. In Hamburg he has taken part in performances of Macbeth, Falstaff, Die Fledermaus, Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni; and has also appeared at the Bayerische Staatsoper and in concert with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (in Verdi’s Requiem), the MDR Orchestra in the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Berlin Rundfunkchor.

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; and  collaborated with directors including Pier Luigi Pizzi, Jérôme Savary, Mas-simo Ranieri, Irina Brook, Sir Peter Hall, Luca Ronconi, Ste- fano Vizioli, Francisco Negrin, Marco Bellocchio and Laurent Pelly. Recent engagements include L’Italiana in Algeri and La bohème at the Berlin Staatsoper and in Aix-en-Provence, Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Paris Opera, and La Cenerentola at Glyndebourne, Frankfurt and Paris. Giorgio Caoduro also participated in the filmed production of Rigoletto in Mantua with Plácido Domingo and Zubin Mehta. In 2012 he received the Australian Green Room Award for best opera singer of the year; and his solo album dedicated to Rossini, “The Art of Virtuoso Bariton”, released in 2021, has been very well received by the international press.

At the Opéra de Lausanne, has performed in: Gianni Schicchi (2004), Il signor Bruschino (2004), Il barbiere di Siviglia (2014) and La Cenerentola (2015).

Adrian Sãmpetrean appeared as Leporello at the Salzburg Festival, La Scala in Milan, Moscow, Berlin (with Daniel Barenboim), Paris, Monte Carlo, Amsterdam, Prague (with Plácido Domingo), as well as at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Chorégies in Orange; Macbeth at La Scala, Oberto, La Cenerentola at the Paris Opera and at the Vienna Staatsoper, Il Trovatore at the Berlin Staatsoper and the Salzburg Festival, L‘elisir d’amore at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Il Turco in Italia at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Don Giovanni in Venice, I Puritani in Chicago, Il viaggio a Reims in Valencia and Carmen in Monte-Carlo.

Aurélie Brémond is a French soprano who initially studied at the CRR Reims, thereafter at the CRR Paris 1er Arrondissement, the CRR Avignon and finally the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne, where she is currently completing her master’s degree with Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet. Her passion for sharing with the public has led her to organise a series of concerts in her native region with the Trio Iris and to perform on a regular basis in recitals in Switzerland and France. She has already had the opportunity of playing Philomèle in Delibes’ Le roi l’a dit and Princess Laoula in Chabrier’s L’Étoile at the Opéra d’Avignon, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at the Théâtre de Pézenas and Despina in Così fan tutte, a co-production between the HEMU and the HEM-Geneva.

After a degree in Italian, Laurène Paternò joined the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne as a bachelor and obtained a master’s degree as a soloist in 2019. Within this context, she participated in a Swiss musical performed 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 in Bhutan in 2018. She appeared at the Nouvel Opéra de Fribourg as Sofiya, Yelena and a KGB agent in Russell Hepplewhite’s Laika, the Dog in Space. In 2020, was part of the Opéra Comique de Paris programme in a revival of Laïka, le chien dans l’espace. She performed 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 is scheduled to perform as Despina (Così fan tutte) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Théâtre de Caen in 2022. She won first  prize in the Kattenburg competition at the Opéra de Lausanne in 2019 and second prize in the Corsica Lirica competition in 2021.

At the Opera of Lausanne, she has performed in: La serva padrona (Bouthan 2018), Les chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), La belle Hélène (2020) and Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021).

French tenor Jean Miannay studied singing with Brigitte Balleys at the HEMU and with Scot Weier at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. His first roles were at the Opéra de Lausanne. In September 2021, he performed Ferrando in Così fan tutte in Lausanne and Fribourg, in a co-production between the HEMU and the HEM-Genève. He made his French stage debut in 2020 as Beppe in Pagliacci at the Opéra du Grand Avignon – a production repeated at the Opéra de Vichy, Clermont-Ferrand and the Festival de Saint-Céré. In 2020 he also appeared in the “Magic Night” performed for the first time at the Chorégies d’Orange. He was invited back the following year for a recital entitled “Emerging Scene”. He is expected to appear as Isepo in Ponchielli’s La Gioconda in 2022.

At the Opéra de Lausanne he has performed in : Cendrillon de Pauline Viardot (2018), Les contes d’Hoffmann (2019), Rinaldo (2020), L’auberge du Cheval Blanc (2021) and Semiramide (2022).

Aslam was born on the island of La Réunion, where he lived until he was 19. He started playing the violin at the age of six and began to sing variety at the age of 16. In 2010 he moved to Tours, where he set up a professional project and was hired as a singer in a circus. In 2016, he was introduced to opera singing and joined Jean-François Rouchon’s class in Cergy. After a year of training, he decided to go professional and to familiarise himself with the world of opera. In 2020, he won first prize in the Voix des Outre-mer competition, obtained his DEM in opera singing and joined Leontina Vaduva’s class at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne. In September 2021, he performed his first solo role as Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) in a co-production between the HEMU and the HEM-Geneva.

Born in Lausanne, Raphaël Hardmeyer began his musical career with the violin, followed by 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, appeared in Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Die Walkyrie (concert version) in Evian. In 2020 he enjoyed the benefit of the OperaLab.ch programme set up by the Grand Théâtre de Genève along with the Hautes Écoles de Genève. This season, he is performing in a staged version of Messiah at the Théâtre du Jorat and in Die Zauberflöte at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, conducted by Christophe Rousset.

At the Opéra de Lausanne, he has performed in: Ariadne auf Naxos (2019) and Semiramide (2022).

The Opéra de Lausanne Choir is a core group of about forty chorists who are, for the most part, students from singing or professional specialisation classes at the Lausanne Conservatory or other conservatories in Western Switzerland. Chorists are selected by audition and periodically reviewed. Choir directors are chosen from among the most experienced and vary for each performance.

The Opéra de Lausanne Choir is regularly hired by orchestras and festivals in Switzerland and abroad: Création by Haydn (December 2003 – conductor Jerzy Semkow) and Stabat Mater by Rossini (February 2006 – conductor Corrado Rovaris) as a part of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra season, Roland by Lully (concert version) at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, at the Opéra de Montpellier and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Bruxelles (January 2004 – Talens Lyriques orchestra – conductor Christophe Rousset), Die Entführung aus dem Serail concert version at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (January 2005), La grotta di Trofonio (concert version) at the Théâtre de Poissy (March 2005 – Talens Lyriques, conductor Christophe Rousset), Nocturnes by Debussy at the 2007 Montreux Septembre musical (RSO Berlin – conductor Marek Janowski).

In 2008 and 2010 the choir performed as part of the OCL season under the baton of Christian Zacharias: Te Deum by Bruckner (February 2008), Les Noces by Stravinski (December 2008, also in Saint-Gall) and Beethoven’s IXe Symphony (April 2010).

The Choir has also been on many tours with Opéra de Lausanne productions: Opéra de Vichy (Rigoletto in 2005, Il Turco in Italia in 2006, La veuve joyeuse in 2007, Carmen in 2008, Amelia al ballo in 2008 under the direction of Arie Van Beek and La Traviata in 2009 conducted by Roberto Rizzi Brignoli), Opéra Comique (Amelia al ballo by Menotti in March 2007). In October 2008, the Opéra de Lausanne and its choir toured Japan for five performances of Carmen.

The Opéra de Lausanne Choir is featured on several CDs: Le Nez by Chostakovitch, Roland by Lully and La grotta di Trofonio by Salieri. The Choir was also involved in televised performances on RTS of La fille de Madame Angot, La Belle Hélène and, for the reopening of the Opéra, L’elisir d’amore.

Internationally renowned conductor Nir Kabaretti is Music and Artistic Director of the Santa Barbara Symphony in California, the Southwest Florida Symphony and the Israeli Sinfonietta Be’er Sheva. Acclaimed for his “immense musicality” and “warm personality” by his mentor Zubin Mehta, he has built a solid reputation as a master conductor around the world in symphonic, operatic and ballet settings. He is a graduate of the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, a laureate of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Forum Junger Künstler competition in Vienna, and a finalist in the 1994 Douai competition as well as being hired as a choral conductor by the Wiener Staatsoper. Other positions in his early career include assistant to the musical directors of the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He has since been invited by the greatest opera houses (San Carlo in Naples, La Scala in Milan, the New National Opera in Tokyo, the Bregenz Festival…) and the world’s leading orchestras in. At the Opéra de Lausanne, he has directed: Il cappello di paglia di Firenze (2006), Die Fledermaus (2018) and Falstaff (2012).