Léon Carvalho, director of the Paris Opéra-Comique, was frightened by the pistol shot mentioned in the stage directions. He gave up on producing Massenet’s opera, calling the subject of the piece “sad and uninteresting”. It was in Geneva, in Switzerland, that the French premiere would finally take place. Using the resources of the great Genevan Symphony Orchestra, Massenet created an intimate and penetrating atmosphere where romanticism reaches its climax through feelings stemming from the Sturm und Drang – the strong presence of nature unleashing the elements, melancholy and perpetual dissatisfaction of the characters.
Bärenreiter BA 8706 Edition
After studying music and philosophy, Laurent Campellone won first prize in the European Community’s international competition for young conductors in 2001. Appointed Music Director of the Saint-Étienne Opera and Symphony Orchestra in 2004, for more than ten years he spearheaded a policy to rediscover the 19th century French lyrical repertoire, conducting rare works by Massenet (Sapho, Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame, Ariane, Le Mage), Gounod (La Reine de Saba, Polyeucte), and Lalo (Le Roi d’Ys), Saint-Saëns (Les Barbares). He was invited to conduct the French Romantic repertoire, comic opera and the great opera repertoire at the Bolshoi, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the operas of Marseille, Toulon, Nantes, Angers, Bordeaux, Bogotá, Madison, as well as at the Berlioz and La Chaise-Dieu festivals. He also performs in concert with the Bavarian Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Orchestres nationaux du Capitole de Toulouse et des Pays de la Loire, the Orchestres philharmoniques de Nice, de Radio France, de Malaisie. His recording “Offenbach colorature” won the 2019 Diapason d’or prize and was awarded a Diamant by Opéra Magazine, a Choc by Classica and is included in the Gramophone magazine selection. Since September 2020, Laurent Campellone has been the General Director of the Opéra de Tours, where he has recreated Grétry’s La Caravane du Caire, in collaboration with the Opéra Royal de Versailles. At the Opéra Comique, he conducted Les Mousquetaires au Couvent, Fantasio and Madame Favart.
At the Opéra de Lausanne : Werther (2022)
Vincent Boussard directed his first shows as director of the Studio-Théâtre de la Comédie-Française. Since then, he has devoted himself mainly to directing opera and has produced some sixty shows for the opera houses of Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Liège, Manaus, Marseille, Munich, New York, Riga, San Francisco, Seoul, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toulouse, Vienna and Vilnius. He is also invited to the festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, Spoleto and Montepulciano. In the 2022/23 season, he will stage Donizetti’s Two Men and a Woman in Tours, Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur in Riga and Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto in Cologne.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Hamlet (2017) and Werther (2022).
Jean-François Borras performs today in the most important international theaters. He has performed with great success as the Chevalier des Grieux (Manon) at the Paris Opera, in Valencia and at the Vienna Staatsoper, as well as Raimbaut in Robert le Diable and Nabucco at Covent Garden, as the Chevalier de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites) at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and as Macduff (Macbeth) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. He performed at the Vienna Staatsoper in La Traviata, La bohème, Faust and Werther, as well as in Lakmé in Toulon, Un ballo in maschera in Munich, Thaïs in Sao Paulo, Béatrice et Bénédict at the Matsumoto Festival, Lucia di Lammermoor in Avignon. Jean-François Borras replaced Jonas Kaufmann in the title role of Werther at the Metropolitan Opera and will return for La bohème, Rigoletto, Werther and Thaïs. He sings under the direction of Alain Guingal, Evelino Pidò, Daniel Oren, Patrick Fournillier, Daniele Calegari, Fabrizio Carminati, and Michel Plasson.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Die Fledermaus (2018) and Les contes d’Hoffmann (2019).
Finalist of the last Queen Elisabeth Competition Queen Elisabeth Competition, much appreciated for her vocal and scenic qualities and scenic qualities, Héloïse Mas is now now tackles the emblematic roles of the of the mezzosoprano repertoire. She began her training at a very young age, in piano and then in organ, before turning to singing. In 2010, she enters the Conservatoire national of music and dance of Lyon, and obtained a degree in musicology, as well as a master a master’s degree in performance and musicology. Her career promising career takes her to the Opera of Nice, the Monte-Carlo Opera as Maddalena (Rigoletto), on tour in Oman to play the role of Stéphano the role of Stéphano (Romeo and Juliet), at the Operas of Lyon, Marseille and Nancy where she played Boulotte (Bluebeard), at the Domaine d’Ô and at Saint-Céré where she she played the title role in La Périochole, as well as at the Festival Klassik en Het Park in Antwerp and at the Festival of Nohant for performances of Carmen. In 2021-22, she also made her debut as Mallika (Lakmé) at the Teatro Real in Madrid and as Smeaton (Anna Bolena) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Les Grandes Voix). In May 2021, Muso will release his recording “Coeurs Anachroniques “dedicated to Handel, with the London Handel Orchestra and Handel Orchestra and Laurence Cummings.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Orlando Paladino (2017).
Lausanne-based soprano Marie Lys trained at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne and then at the Royal College of Music in London. First prize winner at the Cesti Baroque Opera Competition (2018) and the Vincenzo Bellini Belcanto Competition (2017), she has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Diego Fasolis, Christophe Rousset, Fabio Biondi, Leonardo García Alarcón, Emmanuelle Haïm and Michel Corboz. She has also performed with orchestras such as Europa Galante, Les Talens Lyriques, Sinfonia Varsovia, The English Concert, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Cameristi della Scala and Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco. She has sung the roles of Ginevra (Ariodante) and Adelaide (Lotario) at the Handel Festival in Göttingen, Dorinda (Orlando) at the Castell Festival in Peralada, Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Yniold (Pelléas et Mélisande) and Clorinda (La Cenerentola) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and recently replaced Cecilia Bartoli at the last minute in the title role of Handel’s Alcina at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. She has played the role of Bellezza in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno alongside Biondi in Granada, and the title role in Donizetti’s Betly for the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw. She will soon appear in Vivaldi’s Tamerlano during an Italian tour conducted by Ottavio Dantone, as well as in Lully’s Thésée at the Theater an der Wien, at the Bozar in Brussels and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées under the baton of Christophe Rousset. Marie was supported in her debut by the Migros Culture Percentage and the Leenaards, Dénéréaz, Colette Mosetti and Friedl Wald, Samling, Drake Calleja Trust and Josephine Baker Trust foundations.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Orlando paladino (2017), La sonnambula (2018), Die Fledermaus (2018), Orpheus and Eurydice (2019), Alcina (2022) and Candide (2022).
After the premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande in Moscow under the direction of Manuel Rosenthal, an experience will deeply mark Vincent le Texier: that of Peter Brook’s Impressions of Pelléas. Invited to perform on the main stages of the world (from the Paris Opera to the Salzburg Festival, including La Scala and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw), he has collaborated with prestigious conductors such as Marc Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Christoph Eschenbach, Alain Altinoglu, Philippe Jordan, Myung Whun Chung, and Charles Dutoit, as well as with great directors such as Bob Wilson, Robert Carsen, Laurent Pelly, and Yánnis Kókkos. Recent engagements include the role of the Father in the premiere of Boesmans’ Pinocchio at the Aix-en-Provence, La Monnaie, Dijon and Bordeaux Festivals, the title role in Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise in Tokyo, Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Massenet’s Don Quichotte in Saint-Etienne, and General Boum (La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein) in Cologne, le Médecin (L’Inondation de Filidei) at the Opéra Comique, Salieri (Mozart and Salieri) in Toulon, Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress) and Aye (Akhnaten by Philip Glass) at the Opéra de Nice, Barbe Bleue (Ariane et Barbe Bleue) in Toulouse and Nancy, Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande) at the Opéra national du Rhin, Dijon and the Opéra de Montpellier. Among his projects: Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Opera of Saint-Etienne and Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande) in Modena and Piacenza.
At the Opéra de Lausanne : L’histoire du Soldat (1999), Pénélope (2000), Falstaff (2001), La Frontière (2004).
Born in Russia, Mikhail Timoshenko began his musical and theatrical training in Mednogorsk, before going to perfect his skills at the Franz Liszt Hochschule in Weimar and the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin under the direction of Michail Lanskoi. From 2015 to 2017, he was a member of the Académie de l’Opéra de Paris. In 2017, he won the Maria Callas International Grand Prix in Athens. In 2018, as part of a duet with the pianist Elitsa Desseva, he won First Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition “Franz Schubert and Modern Music” in Graz, as well as First Prize at the Hugo Wolf Academy’s International Art Song Competition Stuttgart. He was also awarded First Prize at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in London. Highlights of his first seasons include the world premiere of Alexandre Desplat’s chamber opera En Silence in Luxembourg and Paris (Bouffes du Nord), Masetto in Don Giovanni at the Opéra de Paris and in Düsseldorf, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro at the Opéra national de Lorraine, Ottokar in Freischütz at the Berlin Konzerthaus, Mozart’s Mass in C at the Salzburg Festival, Albert (Werther) in Tours, Marcello (La bohème) in Toulouse, Papageno (Die Zauber- flöte) in Montpellier, Frank Martin’s Golgotha in Linz. His projects include Leporello (Don Giovanni) at the Glyndebourne Festival, Shchelkalov (Boris Godunov) in Toulouse and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Marcello at Covent Garden and Gounod’s Le Tribut de Zamora in Saint-Etienne. At the Opéra de Lausanne: Werther (2022).
Born in 1969, Catherine Fender is a choral conductor, voice and choral conducting teacher, composer and arranger. Alsatian, she studied piano, organ, singing and especially choral conducting, first with Florent Stroesser in Strasbourg, then Pierre Cao in Luxembourg. She broadened her horizons and deepened her knowledge of the profession by working with Hans-Michael Beuerle in Germany, Raphaël Immoos in Switzerland, as well as by participating in training courses and workshops with Michel-Marc Gervais, Frieder Bernius, Gunnar Eriksson, Eric Ericcson and Michel Corboz, to name but a few. She has initiated and trained many young choral conductors who are now active in France, in the Rhine triangle and internationally. She will join the committee of the French Institute of Choral Art in 2021. Holder of a certificate of aptitude for choral conducting, she has taught choral singing and choral conducting at the Conservatories of Strasbourg and Colmar, at the University of Strasbourg (in particular at the Centre de formation de musiciens intervenants). She is a founding member of the Choeur 3 academy (France-Germany-Switzerland) and regularly teaches master classes. She is a regular lecturer (choral conducting) at the Basel University of Music. She took over the direction of the Lausanne School of Music Choir in August 2020.
Vincent Lemaire is a set designer for theatre, dance and opera. He creates sets in theatres such as La Monnaie, Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Théâtre du Capitole, the Operas of Lyon and Marseille, Opéra National du Rhin, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Royal Opera House in Stockholm, Theater an der Wien, Innsbruck Early Music Festival, the Operas of Zürich and St. Gallen, Staatsoper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper and the Hamburg Staatsoper. He collaborates regularly with director Vincent Boussard, notably in Un ballo in maschera at the Théâtre du Capitole, La fanciulla del West in Hamburg, La Traviata in Tokyo and Strasbourg, Manon at the Lithuanian National Opera, Otello in Salzburg, Die tote Stadt and Lohengrin in St. Gallen as well as The Prophet in Essen. In 1999 and 2001, he won the Prix du Théâtre awarded by the French Community of Belgium.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Hamlet (2017) and Werther (2022).
Born in Arles in 1951, and after studying art history, Christian Lacroix turned to the stage, his childhood dream, after a long detour in the world of haute couture (1980 to 2009), which he undertook at the same time as his work as a costume and set designer for the theatre, opera and ballet, at the Opéra Garnier, the Monnaie in Brussels, the Comédie-Française, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Bouffes du Nord, the Metropolitan in New York, the Festival of Aix-en-Provence, the Opéra Comique, the Capitole in Toulouse, as well as the opera houses of Strasbourg, Vienna, Berlin and Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Graz, St. Gallen, Frankfurt and Salzburg. He was awarded the Molière for costume design for Phèdre in 1996 and for Cyrano de Bergerac in 2007. In parallel, he developed an activity as an industrial designer (TGV Atlantique, tramways in Montpellier) and as an exhibition designer. In 2021, with La vie parisienne, he embarked on his first opera production, in collaboration with Laurent Delvert, director, Romain Gilbert, author of numerous productions, and Glyslein Lefever, choreographer. In 2022, he designed the sets and costumes for Cinderella at the Stockholm Opera.
At the Opéra de Lausanne : Le nozze di Figaro (2021) and Werther (2022).
Nicolas Gilli took his first steps as a lighting director at the Théâtre de Nice, before being entrusted with lighting creations by Jacques Weber, the director at the time. For more than ten years, he was assistant lighting designer to Jacques Rouveyrollis and Alain Poisson, before becoming a freelance lighting designer for many artists – Johnny Hallyday, Michel Sardou, Eddy Mitchell, Zaz… Since 2017, Nicolas Gilli has been designing the lighting for productions directed by Vincent Boussard – Dialogues des Carmélites, Candide, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Manon, Mignon.
At the Opéra de Lausanne : Werther (2022)