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1858. Faced with the threat of closure by the bailiffs of his Bouffes-Parisiens theatre whose coffers had been desperately empty since its opening three years earlier, Jacques Offenbach tried to do everything he could by writing (at last!) a major work aimed at balancing the budget and establishing his reputation as a composer. Encouraged in his approach by Napoleon III’s half-brother the Duke of Morny – who signed the libretto of Monsieur Choufleuri under a pseudonym and was no doubt responsible for the abolition of the limit on the number of characters and choruses in the Bouffes-Parisiens’ productions – Offenbach ventured to write the opera that would become the foundation of his legend: Orpheus aux Enfers. The appointment with eternity took place on 21 October 1858. Hector Crémieux had concocted a high-flying libretto based on an original idea by Ludovic Halévy (to whom Offenbach dedicated his score): an offbeat and anachronistic plunge into ancient Greece featuring a subtle yet extremely caustic background portrayal of the insipid vanity of Second Empire society. The bold move proved a hit and was enthusiastically received audiences – despite the fact that they were the primary target. The composer had taken impressive liberties for his first “no-holds-barred” work. Four acts, seven male and seven female singers, a large chorus and orchestra: the one-act operettas before this “opéra bouffon” – its exact name – appeared mere first drafts compared with this. One might as well come out and state that this was the first great French operetta.
First performance at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris, October 21, 1858.
Heugel & Cie Editions represented by Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag AG, Zürich
L’Opéra de Lausanne dédie les représentations d’Orphée aux Enfers à la mémoire de Léonard Gianadda, Mécène et soutien indéfectible de notre Théâtre.
Nominated at the Victoires de la musique classique in 2015 in the Révélation lyrique category, tenor and native of Nice Samy Camps studied writing and musicology before entering the CNSM in Lyon in Francoise Pollet’s class. Noticed in roles such as Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi), Alfredo (La traviata) or Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), he has performed in many opera houses in France and in Europe: Marseille, Avignon, Montpellier, Tallinn, Lausanne and La Monnaie. From 2017 to 2019, he took part in a major tour of Mam’zelle Nitouche with the Palazzetto Bru Zane, playing the role of Lieutenant Fernand de Champlâtreux alongside Olivier Py in a dozen opera houses, notably in Nantes and at the Théâtre Marigny. He also played the role of Estelle’s husband in Nous sommes éternels by Pierrette Fleutiaux and Pierre Bartholomée at the Opéra de Metz. In 2019, he performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and at the Opéra de Rouen in a participatory version of Carmen (Don José). In 2020, he was the tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Folle Journée de Nantes, the recording of which was released by Mirare, as well as Piquillo (La Périchole) in Marseille. He has played Camille de Coutançon in La Veuve joyeuse at the Avignon Opera and at the Nice Opera. Recent projects include Alfredo at the Estonian National Opera, Guy Florès in L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (directed by Gilles Rico), and his debut at the Opéra de Paris as Ruiz in Verdi’s Trovatore.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Mam’zelle Nitouche (2019).
Encouraged from an early age by her mother who was herself a singer, Marie Perbost entered the Maîtrise de Radio-France where she trained with the greatest conductors. In 2016, she was nominated “revelation lyrique” by Adami. After the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris (classes of Alain Buet, Cécile de Boever and Anne le Bozec), she perfected her skills at the Académie de l’Opéra de Paris, the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence Festival Academy and the Young Singers Project of the Salzburg Festival. In the course of her young career, she has sung the roles of Blanche de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites), Despina (Così fan tutte), Elisetta (Il matrimonio segreto), the Young Woman (Boesmans’ Reigen), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Marzelline (Fidelio), Tullia (Galuppi’s Il mondo alla roversa), Lucine (Roussel’s Le Testament de tante Caroline), La Comtesse (Grétry’s Richard Coeur de Lionb), Durón’s Coronia and Folly (Platée). Together with her recital partner Joséphine Ambroselli, she won the grand prize of the concours international Nadia and Lili Boulanger in 2015. During the 2022/23 season, she can be heard in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Les Epopées, La bohème at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, La Caravane du Caire at the Opéra royal de Versailles, as well as Gluck’s Armide at the Opéra de Dijon and again at Versailles. Committed to the dissemination of contemporary creation, she is a founding member and solo soprano of the Ensemble 101.
Born in Rotterdam, Arie van Beek worked as a percussionist before turning to conducting. He was musical director of the Orchestre d’Auvergne from 1994 to 2010, of the Orchestre de Picardie from 2011 to 2022 and of the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève from 2013 to 2022. From the age of 19 onwards and for 48 years, he was also a conductor, teacher and concert programmer at Codarts conservatory of Music in Rotterdam. He is the permanent conductor of the Doelen Ensemble in Rotterdam and a regular guest conductor for many French and European orchestras. His repertoire ranges from baroque music to works by living composers. Arie van Beek is a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and in 2008 received the Médaille de la Ville Clermont-Ferrand. He has also been awarded the prestigious Elly Ameling-Prize for his contribution to the artistic influence of the city of Rotterdam; and in 2014 he received the Erasmus Prize of the City of Rotterdam.
Born in Grasse in 1965, Olivier Py studied in Paris. After intensive pre-university preparation at the Lycée Fénelon, he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in 1987 and at the same time began studying theology. The following year, he wrote his first play, Des Oranges et des ongles, and founded the company “L’inconvénient des boutures”. In 1995, he created an event at the Avignon Festival by directing his text La Servante, a cycle of plays lasting 24 hours. In 1997, he became director of the Centre dramatique national d’Orléans, which he left in 2007 to direct the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe. In 2013, he became the first director appointed to head the Avignon Festival since Jean Vilar. In 2023, he was appointed director of the Théâtre du Châtelet. Olivier Py is a prolific writer and director of theatre and opera, as well as a comedian and poet. A socially engaged artist, he has directed numerous plays in which the theatrical word places politics at the centre, such as Les Sept contre Thèbes and Les Suppliantes, The Persians by Aeschylus, King Lear by William Shakespeare, or personal texts such as Les Vainqueurs, Orlando or Impatience or Die Sonne for the Volksbühne… In the wake of this, based on a tale by the Brothers Grimm, he began writing an operetta for children, to whom he suggested that they should believe in their desires above all. L’Amour vainqueur was presented at the 73rd edition of the Avignon Festival, representing a so-called ‘poor theatre’ in which uncompromising abruptness is combined with lyricism and hope. In 2021, with the adventure of Hamlet à l’impératif!, Olivier Py fulfilled two desires: firstly, taking over the garden of the Ceccano library to offer a theatrical soap opera with free admission and in the open air, bringing together professional and amateur actors; and tackling the Hamlet ‘continent’ in a radically new interpretation.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La Vase de parfums (2005), Mam’zelle Nitouche (2019) and L’Amour vainqueur (2022).
Julien Dran discovered singing thanks to his parents, themselves both opera singers. He studied at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux and the CNIPAL in Marseille. After graduating from the latter, he was quickly engaged to sing increasingly important roles such as Count Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Fenton (Falstaff), Tebaldo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi). He won the Concours international Gayarre in Pamplona under the presidency of Teresa Berganza in 2013 and, in the same year, the Prix de l’Opéra de Paris at the Salle Gaveau in the male singer category. He has performed in France and abroad in Les Pêcheurs de perles, Fra Diavolo (where he played the title role), L’italiana in Algeri (Lindoro), Béatrice et Bénédict (Benedict) and Carlotta ou la Vaticane (Tiberius), a world premiere by Dominique Gesseney-Rappo at the Opéra de Fribourg. Among the highlights of his last seasons: Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) in Marseille, Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) in Quebec, the title role in Gounod’s Faust and Alfredo (La traviata) at the opera houses of Marseille, Toulouse, Vichy and Limoges, the Viceroy of Naples in the world premiere of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Le Soulier de satin at the Opéra Bastille and Mireille at the Opéra de Metz.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La Belle Hélène (2019), L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021) and My Fair Lady (2022).
A graduate of the Royal Academy of London, Nicolas Cavallier successfully began his career in roles from operas by Mozart (Figaro, Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso) and Rossini (Selim, Mustafa, Alidoro). The evolution of his voice subsequently led Nicolas Cavallier to perform a wider repertoire (Mephistopheles in Faust, Don Quixote, Nilakhanta in Lakmé, the four Devils in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet, Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande, the Marquis de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, Philippe II in Don Carlos, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Scarpia in Tosca, the Dutchman in Der Fliegende Höllander, Henrich der Vogel in Lohengrin, Orest in Elektra…). Appearing on many national and international stages, he has collaborated with conductors such as Michel Plasson, Myung-Whun Chung, Armin Jordan, Marc Minkowski, Evelino Pido, Alberto Zedda, Emmanuel Krivine, Philippe Jordan, Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner and Pinchas Steinberg, as well as with directors Wajdi Mouawad, Stanislas Nordey, Olivier Py, Robert Wilson, David Hermann and Johannes Erath. Recent performances include Don Inigo Gomez in L’Heure espagnole with the London Symphony Orchestra and François-Xavier Roth in London, the four Devils (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) and the title role in Rubinstein’s Demon at the Opéra de Bordeaux, the title role in Don Quichotte in Tours, Walter Furst (Guillaume Tell) and The High Priest (Samson et Dalila) at the Chorégies d’Orange, The Sacristan (Tosca), Don Balthazar (Le Soulier de Satin), Phorbas and Le Veilleur (Œdipe) at the Opéra de Paris, the Marquis de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Caen, Bologna and recently at the Zurich Opera, Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte) at the Opéra national du Rhin, Saint-Bris (Les Huguenots) at La Monnaie in Brussels, and Narbal (Les Troyens) at the Cologne Opera.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: My Fair Lady (2022).
Mezzo-soprano Sophie Pondjiclis studied music at the CNSM in Paris and at the Ecole d’art lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris. She won the Toti dal Monte International Singing Competition in Italy. With more than 70 roles in her repertoire, she has performed on the most important international opera stages, including playing Hate in Gluck’s Armide and Javotte in Manon (Milan Scala), Mercedes in Carmen, the voice from the grave (Antonia’s mother) in Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Opéra de Paris), Olga in Eugene Onegin (Grand Théâtre de Genève), the title role in Handel’s Amadigli (San Carlo de Naples, Opéra de Paris), Le Martyre de saint Sébastien (Hamburg Opera), Stravinsky’s Noces (Théâtre du Châtelet, Maggio Musicale in Florence), L’Enfant et les sortilèges (Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Stockholm), La forza del destino, Otello (Chorégies d’Orange), Adalgisa in Norma (Peking), Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro, the title role in Carmen (France, Japan, Skopje, Bastia, Biel, Bern, Treviso…), Madame de Croissy in Dialogues des Carmélites, the Princess de Bouillon in Adriana Lecouvreur, Queen Gertrude in Hamlet. For the 45th anniversary of the liberation of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, the Théâtre du Châtelet entrusted her with the role of Havas in Germaine Tillon’s Verfügbar aux Enfers. Recent and future engagements include Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro (Lyon), Filipievna in Eugene Onegin (Toulouse), Clémence Chouilloux in On purge bébé by Philippe Boesmans (Brussels, Lyon) and Mescalina in Le Grand Macabre by Ligeti (Georges Enesco Festival in Bucharest). Sophie Pondjiclis is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Le nozze di Figaro (2007).
After training in singing and theater, Carole Meyer obtained a master’s degree in opera singing in June 2010 at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, in the class of Gary Magby. During her studies, she joined the Opéra de Lausanne Choir and received several grants (Mosetti, Jost Foundation…). During her academic career, she sang the roles of Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Fortuna and Drusilla (L’incoronazione di Poppea conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte conducted by Jesus López Cóbos). On the Swiss and French stages, she has appeared as Laetitia (The Old Maid and the Thief by Menotti), Alcina (title role) by Handel, Luigia (Viva la mamma by Donizetti at the Opera of Metz), the Second Witch (Dido and Aeneas), Grilletta (Lo speziale by Haydn), Asa (Manru by Paderewski), Simone (Les Mousquetaires au couvent at the Opera of Toulon), Tamiri (Il re pastore). Her French career takes a new turn thanks, among other things, to the Festival Durance-Luberon, in which she participates since 2021, and to the duo she creates with the pianist Tristan Legris. Moreover, so that her art can also concretely help those who need it most, she is mobilized in favor of charitable associations, whether it is within the framework of CALMS (Les Voix Solidaires) or, more recently, with pianist François-René Duchâble at the Estivales de Berdine. In the pipeline: Gérard Massini’s Eden Park (role of Imogene) at the Oriental-Vevey and at the Pullof in Lausanne, and a recital of French melodies.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Rinaldo (2011), Monsieur Choufleuri (Route Lyrique 2012), Viva la mamma (2013), Les Mousquetaires au couvent (2013), L’Aiglon (2013) and Le Chanteur de Mexico (2017).
A Franco-Italian mezzo-soprano born in Milan, Béatrice Nani entered the Haute école de musique de Lausanne in 2014 in Brigitte Balleys’ class and obtained her Master’s degree in singing in 2019. She perfected her skills with Marie-Ange Todorovitch and Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet. Passionate about theatre, she trained with Gaëlle Bourgeois and Fiona Chauvin in Paris. She is a laureate of the Concours Enesco et Léopold Bellan in Paris and in 2022 won Third Prize at the Concours international de chant de la ville de Béziers. On stage, she has performed in Bouche à bouche by Maurice Yvain at the Théâtre Déjazet in Paris and in Bottesini’s Requiem at the Victoria Hall in Geneva. She sang the role of Ella Maillart in the first performance of Le Ruisseau noir by Guy-François Leuenberger at the Théâtre du Grütli in Geneva and played Lois in Kiss Me, Kate by Cole Porter at the Théâtre du Galpon in Geneva. In 2022, she made her debut at the Opéra de Tours as La Mère in Le Petit Chaperon rouge composed by Guy-François Leuenberger, as well as in Carmen, for which she played the title role in September in Orbe.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La Vie Parisienne (2016), Le Chanteur de Mexico (2017), Cendrillon (2018), Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021) and Candide (2022).
Having taken vocal training with Hiroko Kawamichi at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, Yuki Tsurusaki devotes a lot of importance to interpretation, which she notably developed with Armand Deladoëy. She has been on stage since she was a child and is equally at ease in repertoires including song and dance. In opera, she has appeared in The Telephone (Lucy), The Turn of the Screw (Miles), Carmen (Micaëla), as well as in world premieres such as Il gatto con gli stivali by Rinaldo Bellucci. She performs in various festivals in Japan, Russia and the United States. She was awarded the Mosetti scholarship, as well as first prizes at the Vienne en Voix competition in Vivonne and the Léopold Bellan competition in Paris. She has notably studied with Ludovic Tézier, Béatrice Uria-Monzon and Antoine Palloc, among others.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Les Zoocrates by Thierry Besançon (2017), Die Fledermaus (2018), Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021), Le Petit Chaperon rouge by Guy-François Leuenberger (2021) and L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021).
Clémentine Bourgoin began by learning the cello, before studying singing and acting. She has performed on various opera stages in France and Europe, notably in Hervé’s trilogy of operettas staged by Pierre-André Weitz: Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde, Mam’zelle Nitouche and V’lan dans l’œil, the last of which will be performed in 2021 at the Théâtre du Châtelet. She also sung the roles of The Shepherdess and the Bat in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges at the Opéra de Limoges and The Princess in Olivier Py’s chamber opera L’Amour vainqueur, premiered at the 2019 Avignon Festival and then performed on international tour. Recently, she played Sylvabelle in L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc at the Opéra de Lausanne and at the Opéra de Marseille, as well as Les Petites Noces, an adaptation of Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro with Les Musiciens du Louvre.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Mam’zelle Nitouche (2019), L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021) and L’amour vainqueur (2022).
The daughter of a musician, Emma Delannoy discovered her love for opera singing at a very early age. She entered the Conservatoire de musique de Genève at the age of 15 in the Musimax programme (the first created in Geneva to encourage young talent) and then in the pre-professional programme, in Juliette Galstian’s class. In 2016, she participated as a soloist in two projects: Drôle de tram and Ratapolis, works commissioned for the 180th anniversary of the Conservatoire de musique de Genève. She then joined Hiroko Kawamichi’s singing class at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in June 2020, and subsequently entered the Master’s programme with Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet, which she completed in June 2022. In May 2022, she performed the role of the Princess in the opera Le Chat botté, of which the first performance was staged by Etienne Crausaz and Jacques Doutaz in collaboration with the Opéra des Champs. In July 2022, she played the role of Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Trentino Music Festival in Italy. Since September 2022, she has been a member of the Opéra de Lausanne Chorus, where she leads the opera workshops from November to February 2023. She sang the role of Oscar in Un ballo in maschera in January 2023 with Operami and made her debut at the Opéra de Lausanne as Alexis in L’Île de Tulipatan for the Route Lyrique in June-July 2023. In parallel to her musical career, Emma Delannoy also obtained a Bachelor of Arts in French and musicology at the University of Geneva.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: L’Île de Tulipatan (Route Lyrique 2023).
Having studied under Blandine de Saint-Sauveur and Leontina Vaduva, Hoël Troadec recently completed his training at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne. He has already taken on many roles, such as Nathanaël (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Beppe (Rita), Silvio (Le Docteur Miracle), Benedict (Béatrice et Bénédict), Gardefeu (La Vie parisienne), the Chevalier de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites), Paris (La Belle Hélène), Roland (Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde), Schmidt (Werther), Tonio (La Fille du régiment) and Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore). His roles have taken him to prestigious stages such as the Bregenzer Festspiele, the Opéra de Massy, the Opéra de Clermont-Ferrand, the Opéra de Vichy, the Opéra de Lausanne and, recently, the Opéra de Lyon.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), La Belle Hélène (2019), Le Petit Chaperon rouge (2021) and Candide (2022).
Winner of the first prize for piano at the Conservatoire de paris, vocal coach for the Académie international de comédie musicale. Frédéric Longbois is a multi-faceted artist who was one of Jérôme Savary’s favourite performers for 20 years at the Théâtre de Chaillot and then at the Opéra-Comique. On television, he has appeared in José Dayan’s Milady, Les Petits Meurtres d’Agatha Christie, Famille d’accueil, Le Sang de la vigne, and Chez Maupassant. He has also acted in French films alongside Isabelle Huppert, Nathalie Baye, Danielle Darrieux, Clémentine Célarié, Romain Duris, Fabrice Lucchini… More recently, Frédéric Longbois was one of the most striking figures in Season 7 of The Voice. A veritable phenomenon on Mika’s team, Frédéric stood out from the blind auditions, as much for his unusual personality that is both touching and colourful, as for his vocal technique.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La Vie parisienne (2005), Die lustige Wittwe (2014), Le Chanteur de Mexico (2017) and Les Contes d’Hoffmann (2019).
Aslam was born on the island of La Réunion, where he lived until he was nineteen. He started playing the violin at the age of six and began singing variety music at sixteen. 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 is introduced to opera singing and joins Jean-François Rouchon’s class in Cergy. After a year of training, he decides to become professional and to familiarize himself with the world of opera. During the year 2020, he won the 1st prize of 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. He will take his first solo role in September 2021 as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, produced by the HEMU and the Opéra de Fribourg and also performed at the Opéra de Lausanne.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: L’auberge du Cheval Blanc (2021), Werther (2022), L’elisir d’amore (2022), My fair Lady (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.
rained at the Conservatoire d’Aix-en-Provence, where he began his career under the baton of Darius Milhaud, Patrick Marie Aubert obtained a first prize in orchestral conducting in the class of Pierre Villette. He also won a prize for singing, a prize for lyric art and a prize for chamber music. He was a professor of the choral singing class and then director of the Léo Delibes Conservatory in Clichy, artistic director of the Vox Hominis vocal ensemble, musical director of the Divertimento orchestra and conductor of the choirs of the Nantes Opera. Conductor of the French Army Choir until 2000, he has participated for nearly twenty years in major national events and has conducted numerous concerts in France and abroad. He was the conductor of the Chœur du Capitole de Toulouse from 2003 to 2009, then director of the Chœur de l’Opéra national de Paris from 2009 to 2014. He has collaborated with conductors Maurizio Arena, Serge Baudo, Roberto Benzi, Marc Minkowski, Evelino Pidò, Michel Plasson, Georges Prêtre, Yutaka Sado, Jeffrey Tate… and directors Robert Carsen, Georges Lavaudant, Jorge Lavelli, Laurent Pelly, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Olivier Py, Robert Wilson…
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Orpheus and Eurydice (2019), The Tales of Hoffmann (2019), the exceptional concert of the Opera de Lausanne Choir (2020), Little Red Riding Hood (2021), Candide (2022), Le domino noir (2023)
Pierre-André Weitz took his first steps on stage at the Théâtre du Peuple de Bussang at the age of ten, where he acted and sang, as well as making and designing sets and costumes until he was 25 years old. At the same time, he studied architecture in Strasbourg and entered the Conservatoire d’art lyrique. During this period, he was a chorister at the Opéra national du Rhin. In 1989, he met Olivier Py and since then he has designed all the latter’s sets and costumes. He has created more than 150 sets for various other directors, both in theatre and opera (Jean Chollet, Michel Raskine, Claude Buchvald, Jean-Michel Rabeux, Ivan Alexandre, Jacques Vincey, Hervé Loichemol, Sylvie Rentona, Karelle Prugnaud, Mireille Delunsch, Christine Berg…). This research into space and time has also led him to perform as a musician or as an author in certain shows. He has been teaching stage design for over 20 years at the École supérieure des arts décoratifs in Strasbourg. Recently, he directed Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde and Mam’zelle Nitouche, two Palazzetto Bru Zane productions.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: La Vase de parfums (2005) and L’Amour vainqueur (2022).
After studying art at the École supérieure des Arts décoratifs de Strasbourg (ESAD) and the École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre (ENSATT), Mathieu Crescence worked as a set designer with various theatre companies. In 2010, he servved as assistant costume designer at the Opéra on the world premieres of La forza del destino, Le Roi Arthus, Tosca and Samson et Dalila. In parallel to this activity, he assisted costume designers Dominique Borg (on French musicals) and Christian Gasc (on feature films), before joining the Pierre-André Weitz/Olivier Py duo in 2013 as assistant set designer/costume designer on various productions, a collaboration that is still ongoing. His activities extend far beyond France: in 2017, he worked with Kaspar Glarner on the world premiere of Otello at Covent Garden; of Prokofiev’s L’Ange de feu at the Warsaw National Opera, Lady MacBeth von Mzensk at the Frankfurt Opera, and collaborated with Malgorzata Szczęśniak on several productions by Kristof Warlikowski at the Salzburg Festival, where he has been regularly officiating since 2018. In 2014, he designed the set for Peter Eövös’ Balcon after Genet at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet in Paris with the ensemble Le Balcon conducted by Maxime Pascal, as well as the set for Massenet’s Don César de Bazan three years later at the Opéra de Reims, both directed by Damien Bigourdan. In 2018, he designed the set and costumes for Offenbach’s La Périchole and Carmen in 2019 and Werther in 2021 for Romain Gilbert at the Opéra national de Bordeaux. At the Opéra de Lausanne: Orphée aux Enfers (2023).