What is Gandhi’s influence on the contemporary political world? This is the question explored by Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha (1980), the second in his trilogy devoted to historical figures, alongside Einstein on the Beach (1976) and Akhnaten (1984). But Satyagraha – Sanskrit for “truth force” – is not a biopic.This work, with its mesmerising music, interweaves timelines, relating each of its three acts to a key figure linked to Gandhi in order to better understand the genesis of his political thought: Leo Tolstoy, with whom he corresponded; the poet Rabindranath Tagore, who supported him; and Martin Luther King, who was inspired by his principles of non-violence.Satyagraha is entering the Paris Opera repertoire directed by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, who have already created the dance piece Pit. For them, this opera “is not simply a meditation on history, but a call to action and a forceful lesson that rings ever more true today.”

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Satyagraha

Satyagraha - EN

What is Gandhi’s influence on the contemporary political world? This is the question explored by Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha (1980), the second in his trilogy devoted to historical figures, alongside Einstein on the Beach (1976) and Akhnaten (198

Philip Glass

In February 1972, the American president Richard Nixon went to China to meet Mao Zedong. In the context of the war in Vietnam and the cold war, this encounter marked a turning point in Chinese‑ American relations. John Adams, a major musical figure of the last forty years, made this event of contemporary history the subject of his first opera.Nixon in China tackles the political thaw instigated by ping-pong diplomacy, begun by the invitation of the American table tennis players by their Chinese counterparts, one year before the presidential visit. A mesmerising work in which the pulsations and repetitions typical of minimalism are combined with melodic lines of great lyricism.For its entry into the Paris Opera repertoire, this work has been entrusted to the director Valentina Carrasco, who underlines the importance and the mediating power of Chinese national sport in history. The Paris Opera Orchestra and ChorusWith the support of the Orange Foundation, sponsor of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts.© Opéra national de Paris - 2023 Picture: © Everett Collection / Bridgeman Images

Richard Nixon: President of the United States Mao Tse-tung: Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Pat Nixon: First Lady of the United States Chiang Ch’ing: Mao’s wife Henry Kissinger: US National Security Advisor Chou En-lai: Chinese Prime Minister

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Nixon in China_trailer

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Nixon in China

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Nixon in China from 24 February to 20 March 2026 at the Opera Bastille

In February 1972, the American president Richard Nixon went to China to meet Mao Zedong. In the context of the war in Vietnam and the cold war, this encounter marked a turning point in Chinese‑ American relations. John Adams, a major musical figure o

John Adams

After last season’s The Dante Project, the Paris Opera continues to explore the music of contemporary composer Thomas Adès with the French premiere of The Exterminating Angel. Inspired by Luis Buñuel’s 1962 surrealist film, which offered a scathing critique of the bourgeoisie, the work begins with a dinner among upper-class friends in a plush mansion after an opera performance. But, gradually, a mysterious force prevents the fifteen guests from leaving the reception. In this confinement for no apparent reason, drawn out over several days, the veneer of propriety cracks, revealing the worst of human nature.Thomas Adès has written a rich and tense score, amplifying the libretto’s strange atmosphere with unusual instruments such as the ondes Martenot. The Paris Opera has entrusted the staging of this huis-clos to Calixto Bieito. The director has long been fascinated by Buñuel’s universe. The Paris Opera Orchestra and ChorusWith the participation of medici.tv, and the support of the Fondation Orange, sponsor of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts. © Opéra national de Paris – 2024 Director: François-René Martin

The hosts Edmundo: Marquis de Nobile Lucia de Nobile: his wifeTheir guests Leticia Maynar: an opera singer Leonora Palma Silvia de Ávila: a young widowed mother, duchess of Ávila Francisco de Ávila: her brother Blanca Delgado: a pianist Alberto Roc: her husband, a conductor Beatriz Eduardo: her fiancé Comte Raúl Yebenes: an explorer Colonel Álvaro Gómez Señor Russell Docteur Carlos CondeThe staff Julio: the butler Lucas: the footman Enrique: the waiter Pablo: the cook Meni: a maid Camila: a maidOutside the house Père Sansón Yoli: Silvia’s son

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The Exterminating Angel_trailer

The Exterminating Angel

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After last season’s The Dante Project, the Paris Opera continues to explore the music of contemporary composer Thomas Adès with the French premiere of The Exterminating Angel.  Inspired by Luis Buñuel’s 1962 surrealist film, which offered a scathing 

Thomas Adès

"Unimaginable, because invisible, because immeasurable, because infinite, because eternal, because omnipresent, because almighty." - Moses und Aron, Act I, scene 2“I have at last learned the lesson forced on me last year, and I shall not forget it. I am neither a German nor a European, and perhaps barely human, but I am a Jew.”Despite having converted to Protestantism in his youth, Schönberg was the target of anti-Semitic attacks from 1921 onwards. Shaken by such virulence, he decided to return to his roots while developing a highly personalised interpretation of the Old Testament.What initially started out as a cantata soon took on the dimensions of an oratorio. The project became a philosophical opera that pitted not only two brothers, Moses and Aron, against each other, but also radicalism and compromise, muddled discourse and lyric effusion to the backdrop of a fickle community personified by a particularly massive chorus.“Oh word, word that I lack!” That last phrase, uttered by Moses, sums up the prophet’s tragic weakness but also expresses the composer’s inability to overcome his own contradictions.Officially converting back to Judaism in Paris shortly before seeking refuge in the United States, the inventor of dodecaphonism was plagued by an almost existential inability during the last two decades of his life: that of completing Moses und Aron.Philippe Jordan conducts this masterpiece along with the full musical forces of the Paris Opera and Romeo Castellucci makes his much awaited debut on the stage of the Opera Bastille.Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine / Paris Opera Children's Chorus An ARTE France, Opéra national de Paris, BEL AIR MEDIA coproduction with the support of Fondation Orange, patron of the Opéra national de Paris audiovisual retransmissions and the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée.Moses und Aron - Arnold Schönberg © SCHOTT MUSIC, Mainz Germany by permission of Alphonse Leduc Editions musicalesProduced by François Duplat and Laurent Métivier Directed by François-René MartinARTE France - Opéra national de Paris - Bel Air Media / France 2016

The burning bush: It is the intermediary by which the divine voice is expressed. It orders Moses to be his prophet and deliver the people of Israel. Moses: Loosely based on the Pentateuch, Schönberg’s Moses is an inspired, solitary, intransigent man who finally admits his inability to convince the people of the power of the idea of “one God, eternal, omnipresent, invisible and inconceivable”. Aron: In this work, the brother of Moses is a political figure. Despite his willingness to go along with the prophetic word which he translates for the people of Israel, initially by using miracles, he does not hesitate to seek compromise, even if it means accepting the base instincts of those who urge him to act in the absence of Moses. He is the representation of eloquence in the face of the “tragic” oratory of his brother. The people of Israel: Deeply divided, the people wish to free themselves from the yoke of Pharaoh but are reluctant to convert to the unattainable single God proposed by Moses. Capricious and violent, they yearn to reach the Promised Land and finally recognise Aron as their guide.

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Moses und Aron

"Unimaginable, because invisible, because immeasurable, because infinite, because eternal, because omnipresent, because almighty."- Moses und Aron, Act I, scene 2 “I have at last learned the lesson forced on me last year, and I shall not forget it. I

Arnold Schönberg

I like being afraid... with you - La Belle, La Belle et la Bête, Jean Cocteau, 1946Running through Bartók’s disenchanted tale, whose haunting music was initially condemned as unplayable, and the expression of despair in Poulenc’s monologue, the director Krzysztof Warlikowski perceives a shared dramatic thread, a shared feminine consciousness and a shared sense of imprisonment and suffocation. For the woman who penetrates the confines of Bluebeard’s castle and Elle, the woman who clings to a telephone conversation with a man as the only thing worth living for, are condemned to share the same fate. And this man she speaks to, does he really exist? Unless the director has interpreted Cocteau’s words to the letter and the telephone has become a “terrifying weapon that leaves no trace, makes no noise”… A coproduction Opéra national de Paris, Telmondis, Mezzo with the support of La Fondation Orange and the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée.© Opéra national de Paris - Telmondis - Mezzo - France 2015

Bluebeard’s Castle Bluebeard: A man with a mysterious past. There are disturbing rumors about him. He instructs his new wife not to ask questions. Judith: She broke off her engagement to marry Bluebeard despite her family's opposition. She wants to bring light and joy into the dark castle and into her husband's life. But she also wants to know everything about his past. The Human Voice Her: In her bedroom, a woman answers a phone call from her lover, who has just left her. During this final conversation, she recalls the happy days of their affair, vainly tries to win back her lover, goes from resignation to despair, from lies to the admission of a suicide attempt, from outburst to apparent calm.

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Bluebeard’s castle / The human voice

I like being afraid... with you  - La Belle, La Belle et la Bête, Jean Cocteau, 1946 Running through Bartók’s disenchanted tale, whose haunting music was initially condemned as unplayable, and the expression of despair in Poulenc’s monologue, the dir

Béla Bartók / Francis Poulenc

Bluebeard’s Castle / The Human Voice

“The subject for the Satin Slipper comes from a Chinese legend about two celestial stars in love who, each year, having travelled far, manage to come within reach of each other without ever being able to come together from the disparate sides of the Milky Way.” So surmised Paul Claudel. The play, whose power of attraction has never wavered, occupies a special place in the theatrical repertoire of the 20th century: written between 1919 and 1924 and first staged by Jean-Louis Barrault in an abridged version in 1943, it would have to await Antoine Vitez to be performed in its entirety. That production, performed in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes in 1987, lasted over ten hours and marked an entire generation of theatregoers, including Marc-André Dalbavie. Alternatively titled The Worst Is Not Always Certain, The Satin Slipper is an immense parable which alternates between the sublime, the comic and the disturbing. It is set in a specific era—the Spanish Golden Age—during which humanity experiences its first bout of “globalization”. Confronting a passionate desire for individual happiness, external imperatives and an aspiration for the universal, the work leads the spectator into a ongoing state hovering between hypnosis and joy. This new opera is the third world-premiere production commissioned by the Paris Opera for its cycle on French literature.

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Le Soulier de satin

“The subject for the Satin Slipper comes from a Chinese legend about two celestial stars in love who, each year, having travelled far, manage to come within reach of each other without ever being able to come together from the disparate sides of the 

Marc-André Dalbavie

As a tribute to Nicolas Joel, who passed away one year ago, the Paris Opera is releasing online the opera Akhmatova, staged and directed by Joel in 2011. For this worldwide premiere, dedicated to one of the most prominent Russian poets of the 20th century, the Opera commissioned Bruno Mantovani to compose the score and Christophe Ghristi to write the libretto. Their work focuses on the darkest moments of Anna Akhmatova’s life: Stalin’s regime and especially her son’s deportation.After 20 years at the direction of the Capitole de Toulouse, where he enriched the repertoire with many of his own productions, Nicolas Joel was named Director of the Paris Opera from 2009 to 2014. He directed, among others, Mireille by Gounod and Akhmatova. A major figure of the operatic stage, he received many awards for his productions, including a Music Award in the “Best Lyrical Production” category for Dialogue of the Carmelites in Toulouse.Paris Opera Orchestra and ChorusA co-production of the Paris National Opera and François Roussillon et Associés With the participation of France Télévisions and the support of the Centre National de la Cinématographie© Opéra national de Paris – François Roussillon et Associés – 2012Picture: © Elisa Haberer / OnP

Akhmatova

Akhmatova_trailer

Akhmatova_VI

As a tribute to Nicolas Joel, who passed away one year ago, the Paris Opera is releasing online the opera Akhmatova, staged and directed by Joel in 2011. For this worldwide premiere, dedicated to one of the most prominent Russian poets of the 20th ce

Bruno Mantovani

For the 75th birthday of Georges Aperghis, the artists of the Academy will present a concert around typical master-pieces of the composer of the Récitations. Picture: © Studio j'adore ce que vous faites ! / OnP

Hommage à Georges Aperghis

Tribute to Georges Aperghis

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For the 75th birthday of Georges Aperghis, the artists of the Academy will present a concert around typical master-pieces of the composer of the Récitations.   Picture: © Studio j'adore ce que vous faites ! / OnP 

Georges Aperghis

A jealous husband, gossiping neighbors, a woman about to give birth, young people who want to escape poverty... Street Scene portrays the inhabitants and dramas of a dilapidated New York neighborhood during a heat wave. In setting playwright Elmer Rice’s play to music, Kurt Weill reveals the tragedy inherent in the daily life of lower-class New Yorkers between the wars. After moving to the United States in 1935 to escape Nazism, the composer created an “American opera” in 1947 that blends European influences and the Broadway musical into a fluid score. This new production of Street Scene, performed by singers from the Paris Opera Academy, is presented at the MC93 in Bobigny, a new chapter in a long-standing partnership between the two institutions. Excerpts from Street Scene are presented under license from The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc.

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Street Scenes

A jealous husband, gossiping neighbors, a woman about to give birth, young people who want to escape poverty... Street Scene portrays the inhabitants and dramas of a dilapidated New York neighborhood during a heat wave.In setting playwright Elmer Ric

David Daurier

Street Scenes by Kurt Weill

Benjamin Britten composed The Rape of Lucretia in 1946 after a radio-drama by André Obey. Britten and his librettist, two convinced pacifists involved way before WWII, address a European society bruised by war and hate.Running from the grand operatic machine, their inspiration drove them to a more intimate construction, the chamber opera. Britten wrote indeed for a small number of musicians and singers-actors in a musical and dramatic language where the narration exceeds the illusion on stage.Britten chose the myth of the dedicated and suicidal wife and wrote a piece that interrogates desire in its relation with anxiety: mutual love, gulty will and frustration.Britten makes us think about the violence in human relations, about sexuality and its dark zones. With Lucretia as heroin and victim, Britten makes us face the tragic human condition. An Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris production Co-produced by : C.I.C.T. - Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord With the support of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation and the Orange Foundation, patron of the Opéra national de Paris' audiovisual broadcasts.Executive production : Idéale Audience Director: Sébastien Glas © Opéra national de Paris - 2021Picture: © Studio J'adore ce que vous faites ! / OnP

Le viol de Lucrèce

The Rape of Lucretia

Benjamin Britten composed The Rape of Lucretia in 1946 after a radio-drama by André Obey. Britten and his librettist, two convinced pacifists involved way before WWII, address a European society bruised by war and hate. Running from the grand operati

Benjamin Britten

From Benjamin Britten to Thomas Adès, passing through John Adams and Francis Poulenc, dive into the contemporary lyrical repertoire of the Paris Opera, from the second half of the 20th century to the present day!

From Benjamin Britten to Thomas Adès, passing through John Adams and Francis Poulenc, dive into the contemporary lyrical repertoire of the Paris Opera