With the support of
Created in 2010 with the help of the public authorities, the Lyrical Road from the Opéra de Lausanne continues a unique policy in French-speaking Switzerland of the professional integration of singers and instrumentalists who have graduated from the region’s universities of music, accompanied by performance technicians at the end of their apprenticeship.
This unique operation in Switzerland of lyrical decentralisation allows opera lovers to discover the work of a great institution such as the Opéra de Lausanne in a family setting and in a summer environment.
It was after the success of Phi-Phi that Henri Christiné, a native of Geneva, once again came up with a double-syllable title. Dédé tells the story of a shoe merchant who, in order to attract customers, transforms his store into a music hall, populated by dancers in light clothing. Christiné was inspired by the syncopated rhythms in vogue on the other side of the Atlantic to compose this work, which can be described as one of the first French musicals.
Premier on June 6, 2021 at the Opéra de Lausanne, followed by a tour in the Canton of Vaud and French-Speaking Switzerland.
Operetta in 3 acts
by Henri Christiné, libretto by Albert Willemetz
Presented for the first time at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens
in Paris on November 10, 1921
Editions Salabert, represented by G. Ricordi & Co. Bühnen
und Musikverlad GmbH, Berlin
Arranged by Robin Melchior
New production by the Opéra de Lausanne
Costumes made in the workshops of the Opéra de Lausanne
under the direction of Amélie Reymond, in collaboration with Karolina Luisoni.
The Swiss baritone studied at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne in the class of Frédéric Gindraux, before moving to London to work with Prof. Rudolf Piernay at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he obtained an Artist Diploma with distinction. He also worked with Dame Felicity Lott, François Le Roux, Eugene Asti and Graham Johnson, whom he assisted in his latest book on the life of Francis Poulenc, “Poulenc: The Life in the Songs”, published by Liveright. He sings several roles for the Opéra de Lausanne, including the title role in Christiné’s operetta Dédé, Melchior in Menotti’s Amahl et les Visiteurs du Soir, Maximilian in Bernstein’s Candide, and Urbain in Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne. He also creates recitals for children and a workshop during the Lausanne Youth Olympic Games in 2020. He is also heard singing Weill’s Berliner Requiem during the exceptional concert of the Opera Choir. He has worked for the LSO (London Symphony Orchestra) on several occasions (Discovery Day on the music of Michael Tippett, soloist for Haydn’s Nelson Mass or curator of a recital in the series “Future: the musical voices of our time”), the BBC (“Immersion in the music of Detlev Glanert”) or the Wigmore Hall (study groups on the vocal music of Schumann, Ravel, a recital of contemporary music and a recital of French melodies). He is part of the French Song Exchange between the Wigmore Hall and the Salle Cortot in Paris, where he has the chance to make his debut in 2019 and return regularly to perform. The singer, a Samling Foundation Artist, is awarded the title of Ambassador of Melody by the Oxford Lieder Festival for the year 2020. He enters the concert placement of the Migros Culture Percentage, of which he is also a scholarship holder, as well as the Friedl-Wald and Colette Mosetti foundations. He participated in the final of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Competition in London and was also a finalist of the Young Classical Artist Trust in 2022. He won the English Song Prize in 2020, Second Prize and Audience Prize at the Kattenburg Competition in 2019, Third Prize and all Special Prizes in 2022, and Second Prize at the Somerset Song Prize. Future engagements include SongStudio 2023 at Carnegie Hall in New York with Renée Fleming, a recital series in England and Canada with pianist Cole Knutson for the Oxford Lieder Festival, the role of Maximilian in Bernstein’s Candide at the Opéra de Lausanne, and a revival of My Fair Lady.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: My fair Lady (2015), La Belle de Cadix (Route Lyrique 2016), L’Orfeo (2016), La vie parisienne (2016), Amahl et les visiteurs du soir (2017), Les chevaliers de la table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021) and Candide (2022).
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).
Franco-Swiss tenor Maxence Billiemaz studies singing at the Haute école de musique in Geneva. He has appeared on stage in roles such as. Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) and Bastien (Bastien et Bastienne). He took part in recordings of Saint-Saëns’s Ascanio at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Erlanger’s La Sorcière at Victoria Hall. He sings as soloist in ensembles such as Cappella Mediterranea, Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, Chœur de Chambre de Na- mur, Orlando and Les Talens Lyriques. He also performs in musicals such as Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate (as Bill Calhoun) and John Kander’s Cabaret (as Clifford Bradshaw).
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021), Werther (2022), My Fair Lady (2022), Cendrillon (2023) and Die Zauberflöte (2024).
A Franco-Italian mezzo-soprano born in Milan, Béatrice Nani joined Brigitte Balleys’ class at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne in 2014, graduating with a Master of Singing in 2019. She is currently perfecting her vocal skills with Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet. Passionate about theater, she trained with Gaëlle Bourgeois and Fiona Chauvin in Paris, and received invaluable advice from Thierry Pillon, Jean-Yves Ruf and Shin Iglesias. In 2016, she made her Geneva debut, creating the role of Ella Maillart in Guy-François Leuenberger’s Le Ruisseau noir at the Théâtre du Grütli. She then played Lois in Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate at the Théâtre du Galpon. She was also heard in Bottesini’s Requiem at the Victoria Hall. In 2022, she made her French debut as La Mère in Guy-François Leuenberger’s contemporary children’s opera Le Petit Chaperon rouge at the Opéra de Tours. In 2023, she sings the title role in Bizet’s Carmen on tour in Switzerland. In the 2023/24 season, she is Mercedes in Carmen and Didon in Dido and Aeneas. She can also be heard in Palmeri’s Misa a Buenos Aires and in concert with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne conducted by Marc Leroy-Calatayud. A committed artist, she founded the Les Rocambolantes company with pianist Émilie Roulet, and is involved in a number of performance and mediation projects for young audiences and the disadvantaged. The show Mimi and the Blondies, which she staged with soprano Anne-Sophie Petit, won the Lavaux Classic prize.
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), Candide (2022), Orphée aux Enfers (2023).
Trained for acting at the E.N.S.A.T.T and the Ecole Florent, Richard Lahady also studied singing. He made his debut at the Saint-Etienne Opera and, in the same city, participated in the Massenet Festival. In recent years, the Opéra de Lausanne has offered him numerous roles. He was heard as Langlois in Les Mousquetaires au couvent at the Opéra Comique. He also regularly participates in productions of the Opéra de Paris and the Opéra de Lyon, as well as in numerous French and Swiss festivals.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Die lustige Wittwe (2014), My fair Lady (2015), La vie parisienne (2016), Le chanteur de Mexico (2017), Les chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), La belle Hélène (2019) and Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021).
Félix Le Gloahec started with contemporary music (piano, drums, guitar) before joining the Conservatoire de Grenoble in 2011 in Cécile Fournier’s class. In 2021, he obtains his master’s degree at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne in the class of Frédéric Gindraux. He joined the Opera Studio of Bienne the same year.
In 2018, he joined the choir of the Opéra de Lausanne and the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne in 2020.
He has been heard in: Gallantry, A Soap Opera by D. Moore, Le Dialogue des Carmélites by F. Poulenc, Written on Skin by G. Benjamin.
In September 2021, he will be Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte at the Opéra de Lausanne and at the Opéra de Fribourg, in a production of the HEMU.
Pier-Yves Têtu studied singing with Paul Guigue at the conservatories of Grenoble and Nevers, as well as with Vivianne Zlomke-Dallinges, disciple of Rudolf Knoll, in Geneva. He also studied harmony and counterpoint with François Lusignan, in parallel with classical accordion studies at the André Thépaz Institute in Chambéry. In 2010, he joined the choirs of the Lausanne Opera and the Avenches Opera Festival. Regularly solicited as a soloist or chorister in various oratorio concerts in the Rhône-Alpes region and in Switzerland, he sings under the direction of Michel Corboz, Celso Antunes, Laurent Touche, Emmanuel Krivine, David Reiland, Arie van Beek, Philippe Bérand and Jesús López Cobos. He interprets Menelaus in La belle Hélène, Beppe in Rita ou le mari battu, a brother of Anna in The Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weill.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Un ballo in maschera (2010), Les mousquetaires au couvent (2013), Die lustige Wittwe (2014), La Traviata (2015), My fair Lady (2015), La fille du régiment (2016), Lucia di Lammermoor (2017) and La belle Hélène (2019).
Holder of a master’s degree in interpretation from the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne obtained in 2020, Clémentine Bouteille is interested in a wide repertoire, which includes opera, operetta, but also oratorio. She has been heard as a soloist in Mozart’s Vespers, Jean Gilles’ Requiem and Saint-Saëns’ Requiem. She has sung in King Arthur and the title role in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell. She particularly appreciates creative performances and has participated in the creation of the trio of voice, violin and piano “Madame rêve”, as well as the magic show “Rêverie”. She regularly performs with her trio AimOson in a show called ” Porcelaines “. Clémentine Bouteille is also a singing teacher. She has been trained by the phoniatrist / osteopath Jean-Blaise Roch, and her teaching emphasizes a technical and osteopathic approach based on postural and vocal well-being. In August 2022, she had the pleasure of playing Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with the Ouverture Opéra company in Sion. She regularly performs with the Opéra de Lausanne Choir.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Les chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021) and Werther (2022).
Mathilde Opinel began her vocal studies at the master classes of the Lyon Opera and the CRR in Paris. She holds a degree in musicology from the Sorbonne, and in June 2015, she obtained a master’s degree at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne in the class of Frédéric Gindraux. She is a member of the Opéra de Lausanne since 2012.
Yuki Tsurusaki received her vocal training from Hiroko Kawamichi at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne. From an early age, she has loved the stage: practicing the piano as well as dance, she is an artist equally at ease in both the danced and sung repertoires. Keen to touch her audience, she attaches great importance to interpretation and her relationship with the body, which she has developed in particular with Armand Deladoëy and Enmando. She won the Mosetti scholarship during her studies, as well as first prizes at the Vienne en Voix and Léopold Bellan competitions in Paris. In the operatic repertoire, she sings the roles of Lucy in Menotti’s The Telephone, Miles in The Turn of The Screw, Micaëla and Frasquita in Carmen, as well as creations such as Il gatto con gli stivali by Rinaldo Bellucci at the Turin Opera. She performs at various festivals in Japan, Russia and the United States. She is currently perfecting her vocal skills with the likes of Ludovic Tézier, Béatrice Uria-Monzon, Antoine Palloc and Nadine Denize.
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), L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021), Orphée aux Enfers (2023).
Ludmila Schwartzwalder is a French mezzo-soprano, who graduated from the HEMU in 2021 with a Master of Arts in Music Performance and specifically concerts (Brigitte Balleys’s class). Passionate about foreign languages, she also holds a Bachelor’s degree in English, German and Swedish. She sings regularly with the self-run women’s Diaphane ensemble, as well as the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne and the Cappella Amsterdam, directed by DanielReuss; and is a soloist for contemporary music creations in an oratorio repertoire. In 2020, she was a finalist in the Nuits lyriques de Marmande competition in the melodies category. In 2021, she won the special Prix Fauré-Séverac at the Concours d’interprétation de la mélodie française in Toulouse. In September 2021, she sang the role of Dorabella (Così fan tutte) at the Opéra de Lausanne and at the Opéra de Fribourg (a co-production of the HEMU, HEM Genève and Opéra de Fribourg). In May 2022, she premiered the title role of Le Chat botté by Etienne Crausaz at the Opéra des Champs.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Alcina (2022).
Jean-Philippe Clerc is currently working as a vocal coach and pianist at the Opéra de Lausanne as well as for the singing classes and the Atelier lyrique of the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne. In parallel to his institutional commitments, he prepares numerous singers for their operatic roles or oratorio concerts and regularly performs as an accompanist throughout Europe and Asia. After obtaining his piano diploma at the Geneva Conservatory, he studied with Esther Yellin at the Neuhaus Foundation. Passionate about singing, which he studied with Frédéric Gindraux, he naturally turned to accompanying and coaching singers in various music schools as well as at the opera houses of Fribourg, Reims, the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Avenches Opera Festival. For several years, Jean-Philippe Clerc has also been conducting. As maestro al cembalo, he conducted Handel’s Alcina and Così fan tutte in Sion, as well as Pergolesi’s La serva padrona, directed by Éric Vigié in a production of the Opéra de Lausanne on tour in Bhutan. In the summer of 2021, he conducted Christiné’s operetta Dédé as part of the Opéra de Lausanne’s Route Lyrique. He has been entrusted with the preparation and direction of the Opéra de Lausanne choir on various projects such as Mam’zelle Nitouche by Hervé or Gli amori di Teolinda by Meyerbeer.
Jean-Philippe Guilois entered the National School of the Paris Opera in 1997 and then joined the Rudra Béjart School, with which he participated in several shows and international tours. He made his first professional experience with the Compagnie Buissonnière in Parce que je t’aime, presented at the Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne. While multiplying his contracts as a dancer, he was introduced to the world of opera as a stage manager, and then became assistant director for La bohème, Nabucco, Carmen and Madame Butterfly at the Avenches Opera Festival, L’Aiglon and La Traviata at the Opéra de Marseille, Armide and Cendrillon at the Opéra de Nancy, Falstaff at the Opéra de Montpellier. Recently, he created the choreographies of My fair Lady at the Opéra de Marseille, Un ballo in maschera at the Opéra de Nancy and Tannhäuser at the Opéra national de Lyon. He currently devotes himself to the creation of choreographies, plays and stage productions.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Alcina (2011), My fair Lady (2015), La vie parisienne (2016), Don Giovanni (2017), Così fan tutte (2018), Les chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019), L’auberge du Cheval Blanc (2019) and Dédé (Route Lyrique 2021), My Fair Lady (2022) and Davel (2023)
Studying in Switzerland, Canada and Sweden. He was trained in architecture in Lausanne, a graduate from the Vancouver Film School, Sébastien Guenot places an intuitive narrative at the heart of his artistic work, with a pronounced taste for exploring the world of dreams; the unconscious and dreamlike. Whether it is a question of composing a spatial atmosphere, communicating a story or staging an emotion, his approach constantly strives to imagine a unique relationship between content and form.
Located between the ancient mystical imagination and contemporary arts, his narrative language is multiple, in the same way that his drawing, sculpture, painting, sound, photography, graphics, moving images, scenography and architecture.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Peter and the wolf (2006 and 2011), Les moutons bleus (2008), Phi-Phi (2014), L’enfant et les sortilèges (revived in 2015), La Belle de Cadix (2016), Amahl et les visiteurs du soir (2017).
After her formation as a theatre costume designer, Amélie Reymond was hired at the Lausanne Opera as a seamstress and stylist from 2002 to 2009. She is involved in the costume production for various opera productions. Early in her career she was also entrusted with the complete production of the costumes for Les moutons bleus, in 2008, and for L’enfant et les sortilèges, in 2010. She opened her own studio in 2007, where she creates and directs costumes for various theatres, musicals, dances and exhibitions. She was appointed Assistant Manager of the Costumes Department at the Opéra de Lausanne in 2009, then Head of the Costumes Department in 2016. From 2012 to 2016, she was also directing the costumes for Avenches Opéra; she worked as costume assistant for Carmen, in 2014, and signed her first opera costume creation in 2015 for Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Opéra de Lausanne: she created the costumes for La Belle de Cadix (Route Lyrique 2016), Les Zoocrates (2017) and Les chevaliers de la Table ronde (Route Lyrique 2019).