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A whole opera to succeed in saying ‘I love you!’
When he directs the pastoral world of the proud Adina and the tender Nemorino, Donizetti touches a sensitive spot in the spectator. Nevertheless, he gives the story a fine sense of humour. After all, what is more moving but also more comic than the fragile space between a man and a woman linked by a love potion? In the hands of this master of all genres, ranging from great tragedies to entertainment, the comic opera can appear sentimental. Donizetti’s biggest popular success allies lightness and depth, and keeps the spectator’s heart in a state of permanent palpitation. Should we rely on titillation from a distance or the sincerity of devotion? And what if the latter was uncoupled by the effect of a deceptive potion? Finally, we watch the triumph of perseverance and honesty, even if the ‘furtive tear’ appearing in Adina’s sceptical eye takes a few attempts to transform into a torrent. A smooth dramaturgy of the most mysterious of human feelings, this work has not left the repertoire since its triumphant creation and among audiences it has caused great excitement for centuries. Donizetti’s masterpiece can be used like a musical elixir – to be consumed without moderation.
Libretto by Felice Romani based on the libretto by Eugène Scribe
First performed at the Teatro della Canobbiana in Milan, May 12, 1832
Editions G. Ricordi & 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).
Born in Palermo, Paolo Fanale made his debut as Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) in Padua. Since then, he has performed on the most important opera stages such as La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, the Opéra national de Paris, the Berlin Staatsoper, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Salzburg Festival and the Dallas Opera. He sang the title roles in Faust and La clemenza di Tito, as well as Fenton (Falstaff), Hylas (Les Troyens), Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Pelléas (Pelléas et Mélisande), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Tebaldo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Gennaro (Lucrezia Borgia), Grimoaldo (Rodelinda), Nicias (Thaïs), Lenski (Eugene Onegin), Rodolfo (La bohème), Il Duca di Mantova (Rigoletto), and Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles). He has worked under the direction of James Levine, Claudio Abbado, Kurt Masur, Zubin Metha, Daniele Gatti and Jordi Savall.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Faust (2016) and La clemenza di Tito (2018).
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).
Adriano Sinivia graduated in scenography from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and then went to Paris to study at the Annie Fratellini and Marcel Marceau circus and mimodrama schools. His creations of Mezz’ora di luna and Una delle ultime sere di Carnovale for the Venice Biennale launched his career as a performer and creator. The Paris Opera entrusted him with his first opera production with Stradella by César Franck. This was followed by Les contes d’Hoffmann, Falstaff, Carmen, La petite Renarde rusée, Les Saltimbanques, L’auberge du Cheval Blanc, La cambiale di matrimonio, Il signor Bruschino and many others, in numerous opera houses. Recently, he directed L’elisir d’amore at the Opéra National de Bordeaux and at the Théâtre Antique for the Chorégies d’Orange.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (2007), Il barbiere di Siviglia (2009 and 2014), L’elisir d’amore (2012), La Cenerentola (2015) and Die Fledermaus (2018).
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).
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 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.
Music Director of the Philadelphia Opera and the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Corrado Rovaris is also Principal Conductor of the chamber orchestra “I Virtuosi Italiani”. Trained at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, he made a name for himself in Baroque and Belcanto, before expanding his repertoire to Mozart, Bizet, Verdi and Puccini. Committed to the promotion of new works, he has to his credit the world premieres of Glass Handel (with music by Handel and Philip Glass), Elizabeth Cree by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell, and George Benjamin’s Written on Skin at the Philadelphia Opera. In parallel to an intense activity as a symphonic conductor, he is invited to conduct in the main opera houses and festivals of the world: Teatro alla Scala, Fenice, Teatro Reggio of Turin, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Frankfurt Opera, Lyon Opera… Corrado Rovaris is a knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and received in 2016 the Franco Abbiati award.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Rigoletto (2000), Luisa Miller (2001), La bohème (2003), Il Signor Bruschino and Gianni Schicchi (2004), Otello (2010), La Traviata (2015).
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)
Enzo Iorio studied architecture at the University of Naples. Passionate about music, he participated in various research groups before embarking on a theatrical adventure in France and Italy. As a video creator, he has made promotional trailers for advertising, documentaries on architecture and theater, and creations for dance. At the same time, he continues his research in the field of graphic arts and to create sets and costumes for plays, contemporary circus shows and operas, in collaboration with various artists and directors. His work with the latter has developed in a team spirit, which has allowed the realization of projects where different artistic forms have found their place, with often surprising results.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (2007), L’elisir d’amore (2012), Il barbiere di Siviglia (2009 / also as Ambrogio in 2014), La Cenerentola (2015) and Die Fledermaus (2018).
With over 200 productions to his credit, Fabrice Kebour is recognized as one of the most prolific lighting designers of his generation. His career began in New York, where he very soon signed his own lighting designs. First steps, first successes: he won the United Scenic Artist competition, with the opportunity to assist the most renowned lighting designers in the United States for two years. The last twenty years mark the consecration of his work. He has lit Giorgio Barberio Corsetti’s productions at the Comédie Française for Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, at La Scala in Milan for Macbeth and Turandot, and at the Mariinsky for Don Carlo. He has also been designing David Pountney’s lighting for many years, notably for La forza del destino at the Wiener Staatsoper, Die Zauberflöte in Bregenz and Philip Glass’ world premiere Spuren der Verirrten inaugurating the new opera house in Linz. He also designed the lighting for the world premiere of Berenice and La bohème directed by Claus Guth at the Paris Opera. Among his latest creations, let us note: Il viaggio, Dante by Pascal Dusapin in a staging by Claus Guth for the Aix-en-Provence Festival, as well as Il trittico by Puccini directed by Christof Loy for the Salzburg Festival.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Il barbiere di Siviglia (2009 / 2014), L’elisir d’amore (2012), Le petit Prince (2014), Die Lustige Weiber von Windsor (2014), Die Fledermaus (2018) and Ariadne auf Naxos (2019).