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Welcome to the Duchy of Cacatois XXII
When he premiered L’Île de Tulipatan on 30 September 1868 on “his” stage at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Jacques Offenbach was at the height of his fame and art. The years prior to the Franco-Prussian unrest were a veritable creative firework display for him galvanised by the success of The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein whose librettist Ludovic Halévy humorously summarised the perfect timing: “Bismarck is helping to double our income, this time it’s the war we’re laughing at, and the war is on our doorstep”. Offenbach went on to have one success after another, with Robinson Crusoe, Geneviève de Brabant, Le Château à Toto, and La Périchole in which the two central characters bear the flowery names of Octogène Romboïdal, grand seneschal, and Cacatois XXII, duke and supreme chief of the island. Afterwards, as is often the case with Offenbach, the (surface) laughter is not without a certain depth – in this case the question of sexual orientation on the threshold of adulthood is highlighted, embodied by the “tomboyish” character of Hermosa, the grand seneschal’s daughter, and by the delicate and graceful behaviour of Prince Alexis, the duke’s son.
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.
Originally from Marseille, Rémi Ortega began his singing studies at the Conservatoire de région de his city, in the class of Claude Méloni, then joined the Haute école de musique de Lausanne in the class of Jörg Durmuller, where he followed master classes by Alain Garichot, Laurent Pillot, Yvonne Naef and John Fiore. In 2019, he won the Prix d’interprétation de l’instant lyrique at the Concours des maîtres du chant in Paris. He made his stage debut in the role of the Corporal in La Fille du régiment in Marseille under the direction of Bruno Conti, then in the roles of the innkeeper Pasek and the Mosquito in The Cunning Little Vixen in Monthey, under the baton of Ivan Törzs. Later, he sang the title role in Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón, Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri conducted by Amaury Du Closel, and Emperor Chang in Lehar’s Das Land des Lächelns.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021) and My Fair Lady (2022).
The daughter of a musician, Emma Delannoy soon discovered her love of opera singing. At the age of 15, she entered the Geneva Conservatory of Music in Juliette Galstian’s Musimax class. 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 joined Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet’s class, graduating with a master’s degree in concert performance in June 2022. In May 2022, she plays La Princesse in Le Chat botté, a creation by Étienne Crausaz and Jacques Doutaz in collaboration with Opéra des Champs. In July 2022, she was Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Trentino Music Festival. Since September 2022, she has been a member of the Opéra de Lausanne Chorus, regularly leading its opera workshops. She was Oscar in Un ballo in maschera in January 2023 with Operami. In August 2023, she sings alongside Emiliano Gonzalez Toro and his ensemble I Gemelli at the Festival du Toûno. Alongside her musical career, Emma Delannoy also obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Musicology from the University of Geneva.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: L’Île de Tulipatan (Route Lyrique 2023) and Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon (2023).
Guillaume Paire studied at the Haute École de Musique de Genève in the class of Gilles Cachemaille and then perfected his skills with Sherman Lowe in Venice. He joined the Academy of the Festival of Aix en Provence and the Rencontres Lyriques de Genève. Member of the Rouen Opera Company from 2010 to 2012, he is Papageno in the production of William Kentridge. He made his debut at La Monnaie in Brussels as the Gendarme in Les Mamelles de Tirésias. Recently, Guillaume Paire presented his first musical one-man show “Le Blues du Perroquet” at the Saint-Etienne Opera and played Peter in Hänsel und Gretel produced by Les Variétés Lyriques.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Les mamelles de Tirésias (2016).
The young Belgian dramatic soprano is currently pursuing her Master’s studies at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, in the class of Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet. At the same time, she is pursuing a specialized Master’s degree in contemporary music at the Kunstuniversität Graz, where she is working with Holger Falk and Anna Sushon. In 2018, she received her Bachelor’s degree from the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where she worked with Ewa Wolak, Thomas Quasthoff, Wolfram Rieger and Julia Varady. She is also passionate about the Lieder and Melodie repertoire. She was a finalist at the Helmut Deutsch International Art Song Competition, the Gustav Mahler Competition in Geneva and received the Gérard Souzay prize for French melody at the Joy In Singing International Art Song competition in New York. She made her debut at the Musikverein in Vienna in December 2022, where she performed Alberto Ginastera’s Cantata para América mágica under the direction of Gottfried Rabl. In May 2023, she will make her debut with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne in Alban Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder.
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), Candide (2022), and L’Île de Tulipatan (Route Lyrique 2023)
Originally from the Marseille region, Gilles Rico studied music and philosophy before taking a PhD in medieval philosophy at Oxford University. In parallel to his academic career, he turned to opera directing, working first as an assistant for various European and North American opera houses and festivals. He has worked with directors such as Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser, Joël Pommerat, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Jérôme Deschamps, Andreas Homoki, David McVicar, Damiano Michieletto, Robert Carsen, James Gray and Katie Mitchell. In 2016, he directed his first opera production at Angers-Nantes Opéra, the world premiere of Maria Republica by François Paris, which received the Critics’ Choice Award the same year. He also directed Un dîner avec Jacques, a show based on Offenbach produced by the Opéra-Comique in Paris and then taken on tour in France. He created the participatory opera Tistou les pouces verts by Henri Sauguet at the Rouen Opera and then staged Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Philharmonie de Paris. More recently, he directed the participatory opera Les Petites Noces after Mozart at the Opéra de Rouen, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in Avignon and Toulon, and the operette L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc by Benatzsky in Lausanne and Marseille. As a librettist, Gilles Rico wrote the libretto of Violetta Cruz’s La Princesse légère for the Opéra-Comique and the Opéra de Lille, and the libretto of Fabian Panisello’s chamber opera Les Rois mages, which he also directed in Madrid, Nice and Tel Aviv. His directing projects include Offenbach’s L’Île de Tulipatan at the Opéra de Lausanne (Route Lyrique), Zingarelli’s Giulietta e Romeo at the Opéra royal de Versailles, Gounod’s Le Tribut de Zamora at the Opéra de Saint-Etienne and the world premiere of Zad Moultaka’s Hémon at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Cendrillon by Pauline Viardot (2018), Le nozze di Figaro (2021), L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc (2021) and L’Île de Tulipatan (Route Lyrique 2023).