A return to its roots for Castor et Pollux, Jean-Philippe Rameau’s lyric tragedy first performed in 1737 at the Académie royale and inspired by the mythological episode of the Gemini.Rarely performed in its original version – the score was reworked by Rameau himself in 1754 –, this daring work plays on contrasts and expressiveness, as in the famous “Tristes apprêts”. The aria is sung by Télaïre mourning the death of her fiancé Castor, killed in battle, before her twin brother Pollux descends into the Underworld to ask his father, Jupiter, to bring him back to life.While this opera celebrates brotherly love, its prologue poses an essential question for director Peter Sellars: how do you stop a war and its attendant hatred and resentment?

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Castor et Pollux from 1 December 2024 to 12 June 2025 at the Opéra Bastille

A return to its roots for Castor et Pollux, Jean-Philippe Rameau’s lyric tragedy first performed in 1737 at the Académie royale and inspired by the mythological episode of the Gemini. Rarely performed in its original version – the score was reworked 

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Castor et Pollux

Jean-Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon on 24 or 25 September 1683. At the age of 18, following the example of his father, he decided to become a musician and left for Italy. He stayed there only a few months. From 1702, he played the organ successively in the cathedrals of Avignon, Clermont, Notre-Dame de Dijon, the Jacobin church in Lyon, the Jesuit noviciate and Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie in Paris, where he finally settled in 1722. There, he met the tax farmer Le Riche de La Pouplinière, who became his patron for over a quarter of a century, housed him and entrusted him with the orchestra he had created and supported. Through him, Rameau met his first librettists, the Abbé Pellegrin and Voltaire, with whom he wrote Samson, an opera which was never performed and whose music was partially used in other works. From then, and until 1757, lyrical tragedies, opera-ballets and pastoral works followed one another, sometimes at the rate of two or three a year. Rameau composed about thirty stage works. Besides Platée (1745), his most famous compositions are Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), which immediately propelled the composer among the stars of the French operatic stage, Les Indes galantes (1735), Castor et Pollux (1737), Dardanus (1739), Les Fêtes d'Hébé (1739), Les Fêtes de Polymnie (1745), Zoroastre (1749), Les Paladins (1757). Rameau became the official musician of the Royal court: in 1745, he was appointed Composer of the King's Cabinet. At the age of eighty, he composed his last musical tragedy, Les Boréades, which was never performed during his lifetime. Rameau also wrote many pieces for harpsichord, as well as an important collection of theoretical works (including his famous Treaty of Harmony), which caused him to enter at the end of his life in a fierce debate with Rousseau and d’Alembert. Known as the "Quarrel of the Comic Actors", this quarrel opposed the "King’s corner", or those favouring the French tradition, to the "Queen’s corner", or the supporters of Italian music. Rameau died in Paris on 12 September 1764.

Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique performs on the major international opera stages in the Baroque, Classical and contemporary repertoires.In recent seasons, she has made her debut as Micaëla (Carmen) at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu, Anaï (Moïse et Pharaon) for the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Agathe (Le Franc-tireur) at Berlin's Konzerthaus and Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream) for Berlin's Deutsche Oper.During the 2024-2025 season, she appears in Le lacrime di Eros, a Baroque pastiche featuring works by Caccini, Peri and Monteverdi, arranged and conducted by Raphaël Pichon and directed by Romeo Castellucci for the Amsterdam National Opera. She made her debut as Violetta (La Traviata) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève under Paolo Carignani and at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin under Jérémie Rhorer.Concert appearances include Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Simone Young, Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society under Jonathan Cohen, and Messiah and Fauré Requiem with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck.In recital, she can be heard at the Cologne Philharmonic with pianist Aaron Wajnberg, at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with Maarten Engletjes and the Amsterdam PRJCT, and at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society with pianist Warren Jones.Jeanine De Bique continues her tour with the program from her debut album, Mirrors, with Concerto Köln at Bozar Brussels, Konzerthaus Berlin and Philharmonie Essen.At the Opéra national de Paris: Alcina (title role), 2021; Les Noces de Figaro (Susanna), 2022; Cendrillon (title role), 2023

DeBique.Jeanine (c) Tim Tronckoe

A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 2012, Reinoud Van Mechelen was awarded the Caecilia Prize for Young Musician of the Year in 2017 by the Belgian Music Press Union. In 2011, he joined the Jardin des Voix led by William Christie and Paul Agnew, becoming a regular soloist with Les Arts Florissants, an ensemble with which he has performed on major international stages.He also collaborates with prominent baroque ensembles such as Collegium Vocale, Le Concert Spirituel, Le Concert d’Astrée, Les Talens Lyriques, Pygmalion, Le Poème Harmonique, B’Rock, Ricercar Consort, Scherzi Musicali, and Hesperion XXI, as well as with conductors like Sir Simon Rattle, Roberto Gonzalez-Monjas, and Marc Minkowski.

He has appeared at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Opéra de Bordeaux, the Opéra Comique, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Festival de Beaune, La Monnaie and Bozar in Brussels, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Opernhaus Zurich, and the Theater an der Wien.Among the operatic roles he has performed are the title roles in Dardanus, Zoroastre, and Pygmalion, as well as Hippolyte (Hippolyte et Aricie), Abaris (Les Boréades), Jason (Médée), Orphée (Orphée et Eurydice), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Gérald (Lakmé), and Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles). He recently portrayed Jason (Médée) at the Teatro Real in Madrid and Pylade (Iphigénie en Tauride) at Opera Vlaanderen.

Among his upcoming engagements are the title role in Dardanus in Tourcoing, at Radio France, and the Festival de Beaune, Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at Opera Vlaanderen, Castor et Pollux at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Idomeneo at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.His discography includes around fifty recordings. Reinoud Van Mechelen also directs the ensemble A nocte temporis, which he founded in 2016.

At the Paris Opera: Platée (Mercure, 2022), Médée (Jason, 2024).

Van Mechelen.Reinoud 3 © Senne Van der Ven

Sometimes baritone, sometimes tenor, Marc Mauillon adapts his colors to the music and characters he interprets: Papageno (The Magic Flute), Bobinet (La Vie parisienne), Mercure (Orphée aux Enfers), the Husband (Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias), Momo (Rossi's L'Orfeo), Tisiphone (Hippolyte et Aricie), the Witch (Dido and Aeneas), title roles in Cavalli's Egisto, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Blow's Adonis, Pélée (Marais' Alcione), Raulito (Strasnoy's Cachafaz).In concert, he sings court arias (Lambert, Charpentier, Bacilly), French motets and petits motets (Charpentier, Lully, Rameau, Desmarest, Campra, Couperin), Italian madrigals (Monteverdi, Gesualdo), sacred and secular cantatas (Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Telemann, Monteclair, Clérambault), and programs of medieval and Renaissance music. Recital and chamber music hold a special place in his career. In 2016, he created Songline, a monodic a cappella recital in movement and light.Last season, he played Monostatos (The Magic Flute) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, as well as in Compiègne and Tourcoing - where he also reprised the role of Sander (Zémire et Azor). He also reprises the role of Bobinet at Opéra de Montpellier, and plays the title roles in Orphée aux Enfers (concert version) at Hamburg's ElbPhilharmonie, Pelléas et Mélisande at Toulouse's Théâtre du Capitole, and Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at Opéra Royal de Versailles. He also reunites with Les Taïpei Singers, Les Arts Florissants, La Guilde des mercenaires, Gli Angeli and Angélique Mauillon for various concerts and recitals.Spring 2018 sees the release of a recording of Lambert's Leçons de ténèbres (first cycle from 1662-1963) for the first time on disc (Harmonia Mundi).At the Opéra national de Paris: Hippolyte et Aricie (Tisiphone), 2012; Platée (Momus), 2022

Mauillon-Marc

Stéphanie d'Oustrac was destined for music and the theater from an early age. William Christie offered her her first roles as a tragedienne. Her repertoire was marked by the Baroque world, with works such as Médée, Didon et Énée, Armide, Alcina, Le Couronnement de Poppée... She soon went on to perform in the French (Carmen, Béatrice et Bénédict, Pelléas et Mélisande, L'Heure espagnole, La Voix humaine, Dialogues des carmélites, Werther, Les Troyens, Mignon...) and Mozart repertoires (La Clémence de Titus, Così fan tutte, Idomeneo, Don Giovanni...). She performs on the major international opera stages, including Opéra national de Paris, La Scala in Milan, Opernhaus in Zurich, La Monnaie in Brussels, Opéra national in Amsterdam, Teatro Real in Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, as well as at the Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne and Salzburg festivals. Recently, she has taken part in productions of Werther in Monte Carlo, Carmen in Strasbourg and Tokyo, Mignon in Liège, La Périchole and L'Heure espagnole at Opéra Comique, La Voix humaine in Glyndebourne, Armide in Dijon and Versailles, Dialogues des carmélites in Munich and Agrippina in Amsterdam. Recent and future projects include Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena), the title role of Maria Stuarda and Sara (Roberto Devereux) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the title role of Orontea at La Scala in Milan, Mère Marie de L'Incarnation (Dialogues des carmélites) in Dallas and the title role of Carmen at La Monnaie in Brussels and the Vienna Staatsoper.At the Opéra national de Paris: Doux mensonges (mezzo-soprano), 2001; Carmen (Mercedès), 2002; La Clémence de Titus (Sesto), 2011, 2013, 2017; Roméo et Juliette (mezzo-soprano), 2012; Così fan tutte (Dorabella), 2013; Béatrice et Bénédict (Béatrice), 2017; Les Contes d'Hoffmann (the Muse, Nicklausse), 2016; Les Troyens (Cassandre, Cassandre's Ghost), 2019

D'Oustrac.Stéphanie.7.(c)Jean-Baptiste Millot

An alumnus of Houston Grand Opera's Opera Studio, Nicholas Newton also trained with Wolf Trap Opera, was a Young Artist at the Aspen Music Festival, participated in Houston Grand Opera's Young Artists Vocal Academy and San Diego Opera's Opera Exposed program. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from San Diego State University and his Master of Music degree from Rice University, under the tutelage of Professor Stephen King.In recent seasons, he has appeared in The Indian Queen at the Salzburg Festival, Hänsel et Gretel at Lyric Opera Chicago, The Barber of Seville at Cincinnati Opera and Santa Fe Opera, Rodelinda at New York's Metropolitan Opera and Xerxes at Opera Detroit.His engagements last season included the world premiere of Intelligence at Houston's Grand Opera, La Cenerentola at Chicago's Lyric Opera, El Niño at New York's Metropolitan Opera, as well as Don Giovanni and the world premiere of Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith's The Righteous at Santa Fe Opera. At Houston's Grand Opera, which he considers his “home”, the artist appeared in the world premieres of The Snowy Day by Joel Thompson and Andrea Davis Pinkney and Marian Song by Damien Sneed and Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton. He has also worked on numerous other productions, including Saül, Roméo et Juliette, Rigoletto, Salomé and Tosca.In the 2024-2025 season, Nicholas Newton appears in The Marriage of Figaro at Lyric Opera Chicago and in a new production of Don Giovanni at Opera Philadelphia. His concert debuts include Haydn's Creation with Boston Baroque and Handel's Messiah with the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra.Debut at the Opéra national de Paris

Newton.Nicholas (c) Jiyang Chen

The young French lyric soprano Claire Antoine studied singing at the Conservatoire de Toulouse and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon in the classes of Mireille Delunsch, Sylvie Leroy and Hélène Lucas. In 2021, she was elected Talent Adami Classique. She began her career in 2022 at La Monnaie in Brussels and Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège. In Brussels, she sang the roles of Lady Clarence and Catherine D'Aragon (Henry VIII), directed by Olivier Py and conducted by Alain Altinoglu. In Liège, she sang the role of Madame Lidoine (Dialogues des carmélites) under the direction of Speranza Scappucci.At the Opéra de Lille, she is Ida (La Chauve-souris), directed by Laurent Pelly. From 2021 to 2023, Claire Antoine is a member of the Opera Studio of the Amsterdam National Opera, where she performs the roles of the First Daughter (Le Nain), Dido (Dido and Aeneas) and understudy for Micaëla (Carmen). For the 2023-2024 season, she has been invited to take part in the Génération Opéra program. In recent years, she has appeared in recital at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, at the Chorégies d'Orange as part of the Scènes émergentes program, and at the Opéra de Limoges. Her projects include Liù (Turandot) at the Opéra d'Avignon and the revival of Castor et Pollux (Minerve et une Suivante d'Hébé) at the Salzburg Festival.Debut at the Opéra national de Paris

Claire Antoine portrait

Trained at the Académie de l'Opéra national de ParisLaurence Kilsby studied singing at the Royal College of Music in London and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He was a member of the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris during the 2022-2023 season.Recipient of the first session of the Lies Askonas Fellowship program, winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Society Fellowship for Young Singers in 2018, in 2022 he won the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Singing Competition and the Cesti Competition of the Festwochen der Alten Musik in Innsbruck. He has already performed at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Opéra de Dijon and Opéra de Cologne, and will shortly be making his debut at the Festwochen der Alten Musik in Innsbruck and the Glyndebourne Festival.Highlights of its 2024-2025 season include engagements at Opéra national du Rhin and Opéra Comique, as well as concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Reinhard Goebel, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Hannu Lintu, the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France and Leonardo García Alarcón, the Irish National Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and Peter Whelan, and the Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon.Laurence Kilsby began her training as a chorister with Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum and won BBC-Radio 2's Young Chorister of the Year award in 2009, before making her solo debut at the Royal Albert Hall.Debut at the Opéra national de Paris

Kilsby.Laurence 1 (c) 

Born in 1996 in Dimitrovgrad, Natalia Smirnova studied choral conducting at the Gnessin State Musical College and the Moscow State Conservatory. In 2021, she resumed her studies at the Moscow State Conservatory, focusing on vocal performance under the guidance of Larisa Rudakova, while also attending various masterclasses.She has won numerous international competitions, including the Grand Prize at the inaugural International Chamber Music Competition in 2022 and First Prize at the 12th S.Y. Lemeshev International Vocal Competition in 2023.In recent seasons, she performed Pergolesi's Stabat Mater at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music and made her debut as Annina (La Traviata) and Brigitta (Iolanta) at the Moscow Conservatory Opera Studio. Additionally, she portrayed Licenza in The Dream of Scipio with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Smirnova participated in the Russian premieres of Cherubini's La Prisonnière and De-ba-rr-kah-de-rr, a work by contemporary composer Anna Pospelova. Last summer, she performed the title role in Pascal Dusapin's opera Passion at the Diaghilev Festival under the baton of Teodor Currentzis.Since September 2024, Natalia Smirnova has been a member of the third Young Artists Program at Moscow's Helikon Opera. Her operatic repertoire includes Pamina and the Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute), as well as the title role in The Nightingale.During the 2024-2025 season, she will participate in the international tour of The Indian Queen, portraying Doña Isabel. Conducted by Teodor Currentzis, the production will be staged at the Berlin Philharmonie, DeSingel in Antwerp, and the Church of Saint-Eustache in Paris. Smirnova will also perform Castor and Pollux in concert version at the Salzburg Festival.Debut at the Paris Opera.

Smirnova.Natalia

Teodor Currentzis was born in Greece, where he began studying music. In 1994, he entered St. Petersburg State Conservatory to study under the legendary professor Ilya Musin. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Utopia Orchestra and Chorus, and Artistic Director of musicAeterna Orchestra and Choir. He was the Chief Conductor of the SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart from 2018 to 2024.Together with his ensembles, he regularly tours in Europe and worldwide with performances in numerous venues including Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonic, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Munich Philharmonic, Philharmonie de Paris, Kölner Philharmonie, Auditorio Nacional Madrid, Baden-Baden Festival, and Teatro alla Scala.As a stage conductor and music director, he has worked with the leading opera houses including Paris Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Opernhaus Zürich, Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He has also collaborated with the key figures in modern Western theatre: Robert Wilson, Romeo Castellucci, Peter Sellars, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Theodoros Terzopoulos...Teodor Currentzis is a Resident Artist at the Salzburg Festival as well as at the RUHRtriennale Festival, festivals in Lucerne and Aix-en-Provence. Works by Mozart, Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rameau, and Stravinsky released by Teodor Currentzis on Sony Classical record label have received numerous international music awards: ECHO Klassik, Edison Klassiek, Japanese Record Academy Award, and BBC Music Magazine’s Opera Award.In 2024, Teodor Currentzis launched his own label, Theta, in collaboration with Outhere Music. The first two releases (Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 and Mahler's Symphony No. 3) are scheduled for 2025.Teodor Currentzis has received the Toepfer Foundation’s KAIROS Award. He has also been awarded the Greek Order of the Phoenix and the international Musikfest Bremen Award.

At the Paris Opera: Don Carlo, 2008; Macbeth, 2009

Peter Sellars has become known for his reinterpretations of classical works, his advocacy for contemporary music, and his collaborative projects with a wide range of artists, creators, and performers.

He has overseen the creation of works by John Adams, including Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, El Niño, Doctor Atomic, and The Girls of the Golden West. He participated in the premieres of L’Amour de loin, Adriana Mater, and Only the Sound Remains by Kaija Saariaho, and staged works by Messiaen, Ligeti, Hindemith, Golijov, and Tan Dun.  Among his recent productions are Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) by Tyshawn Sorey at New York's Park Avenue Armory, Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Perle Noire: Meditations for Josephine by Tyshawn Sorey at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Adriana Mater (concert version) with the San Francisco Symphony, and Charpentier’s Médée at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. In 2024, he will direct Erwartung by Schönberg for the San Francisco Symphony and The Gambler by Prokofiev at the Salzburg Festival.Peter Sellars has notably directed the Los Angeles Festival in 1990 and 1993, and in 2006, he organized New Crowned Hope in Vienna to mark the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. He was the Music Director of the 2016 Ojai Music Festival. Peter Sellars is an emeritus professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and a curator for the Telluride Film Festival.He has been honored with a MacArthur Fellowship, the Erasmus Prize for his contributions to European culture, the Gish Prize, and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has also received the Polar Music Prize and was named Artist of the Year by Musical America. In 2021, he was awarded the EBU-IMZ Lifetime Achievement Award for his body of work in video recordings of operas.At the Paris Opera: Saint François d’Assise (1992), Tristan und Isolde (2005), Adriana Mater (2006), Only the Sound Remains (2016), and Beatrice di Tenda (2024).

A graduate of the Glinka State Conservatory in Novosibirsk, Vitaly Polonsky has been collaborating with conductor Teodor Currentzis since 2003. Since 2011, he has been the conductor of the musicAeterna Choir, winner of the 2018 International Opera Awards, with whom he performed at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in 2015, at the Ruhrtriennale Festival in Bochum in 2016 and at the Salzburg Festival every year since 2017.In 2023, he became conductor of the Utopia Choir, which performs alongside the Utopia Orchestra under Teodor Currentzis. Since 2024, he has also coordinated the Diaghilev Festival Youth Choir.Vitaly Polonsky works with a repertoire that includes music of many different styles and periods - works by Baroque composers, masterpieces of Russian choral music from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, as well as opera and works by contemporary composers.As a choral conductor, he has taken part in the creation of opera productions with directors such as Peter Sellars, Robert Wilson and Romeo Castellucci. As a conductor, he regularly gives concerts with the musicAeterna choir and its chamber ensembles at the Hermitage and other museums, as well as in other major concert halls in St. Petersburg and Moscow.Debut at the Opéra national de Paris

Cal Hunt, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, is known worldwide as a dancer, choreographer, director and FlexN ambassador. Although his life as a dancer began at the age of seven, it was in 2015 at the Park Avenue Armory, alongside Peter Sellars, that the world took a closer look at his art.Cal Hunt has created dance pieces about pain and loss, and places the idea of surviving through dance at the heart of his approach. He travels the world performing, including in music videos with artists such as Lous and the Yakuza. In 2019, he choreographed and performed a solo for the Opéra national de Paris production of Les Indes galantes.As part of a program at The Shed (NYC) cultural center, he teaches dance in public schools. He is currently artistic director of It's showtime NYC, a non-profit organization created by Dancing in the Streets for New York street dancers.At the Opéra national de Paris: Les Indes galantes, 2019

Camille Assaf frequently collaborates with Peter Sellars, for whom she has designed the costumes for Fauvel's Roman at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Adriana Mater at the San Francisco Symphony, Médée at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and those for Le Joueur at the Salzburg Festival. Her costumes have been seen on many international stages (Santa Fe Opera, New York City Ballet, Joyce Theater, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Opera Basel, Opera Holland Park, Chenla Theater Phnom Penh, Juilliard Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Park Avenue Armory...).She helped create the costumes for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and has designed the costumes for numerous Benjamin Millepied ballets (Roméo et Juliette, Unstill Life - and those for two ballet evenings at the Rome Opera and at the Philharmonie de Paris).She frequently collaborates with the contemporary artist duo Gerard &amp; Kelly (Without at the New York Guggenheim, Timelining at the Centre Pompidou, Reusable Parts, Endless Love at the Palais de Tokyo, Panorama at the Fondation Pinault - Bourse de Commerce, and&nbsp;Gay Guerilla at the Centre Pompidou).Last season, Camille Assaf created the costumes for Il Trovatore directed by Stephen Wadsworth at the Houston Grand Opera and Macbeth directed by Silvia Costa at the Comédie-Française.At the Paris Opera: Beatrice di Tenda, 2024

James F. Ingalls has been working with Peter Sellars since 1980, most recently on The Gambler at the 2024 Salzburg Festival. Among their other collaborations are productions of works by John Adams (Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, El Niño, Doctor Atomic, A Flowering Tree, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, Girls of the Golden West) and Kaija Saariaho (L’Amour de loin, Adriana Mater, La Passion de Simone, Only the Sound Remains), as well as Le Roman de Fauvel with the Sequentia ensemble and The Rake’s Progress at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Saint François d’Assise, Le Grand Macabre, Idomeneo, and La Clemenza di Tito at the Salzburg Festival, Theodora, The Magic Flute, and The Electrification of the Soviet Union at the Glyndebourne Festival.

He collaborates regularly with Mark Morris (L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, The Hard Nut, Layla and Majnun, Mozart Dances, Orpheus and Eurydice), the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Twyla Tharp Dance. More recently, he designed the lighting for Mayday for BODYTRAFFIC in Los Angeles, as well as Endgame and The House for Druid in Galway, Ireland. He often collaborates with the dancers of The Wooden Floor in Santa Ana, California.

At the Paris Opera: Ein Herz (1990), Saint François d’Assise (1992), Maelstrom (1994), Sandpaper Ballet (2001), Tristan und Isolde (2005), Adriana Mater (2006), The Sleeping Beauty (2015), Only the Sound Remains (2016), Beatrice di Tenda (2024).

Alex MacInnis has been exploring the world of experimental audio and video documentaries for over twenty years, working in mediums ranging from podcasts to IMAX films, and covering subjects such as apparitions of the Virgin Mary, the poetry of Rwandan architecture students, the history of accordions, cats reciting Marcus Aurelius and global climate change. He is the creator of the Los Angeles history podcast series, Valley of Smoke.He was technical director and editor of Bill Viola's video for The Tristan Project, as well as of Le Roman de Fauvel, a show born of Peter Sellars' collaboration with the early music group Sequentia.He is the composer and sound designer of the podcasts The Big Hit Show (Higher Ground Media), Alphabet Boys (iHeartMedia) and Pulse: The Untold Story (Audible). He also performs with The Ukelele (sic) Orchestra of the Western Hemisphere.At the Opéra national de Paris: Tristan et Isolde, 2023

After graduating in Performing Arts from the École normale supérieure de Lyon, Antonio Cuenca Ruiz joined La Monnaie de Bruxelles as dramaturge until 2019. Alongside his work at La Monnaie, he has collaborated with other directors, most notably Peter Sellars: La Clémence de Titus and Idoménée at the Salzburg Festival, Vivier's Kopernikus at the Festival d'Automne in Paris, Fauvel's Roman at the Théâtre du Châtelet and Médée at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.As a dramaturge, recent and future projects include Le Couronnement de Poppée directed by Ted Huffman at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, L'Autre voyage (montage d'après Schubert) directed by Silvia Costa at the Opéra Comique, The Gospel According to the Other Mary directed by Lisenka Heijboer Castañón at the Volksoper in Vienna and Le Joueur directed by Peter Sellars at the Salzburg Festival.In October 2020, he conceived and presented Les Quotidiennes at the Opéra de Lille, a cycle of readings featuring little-known works by 17th-century French women authors. At the Atelier scénario de la Fémis, he is currently writing Clairières dans le ciel, a feature-length screenplay inspired by melodies by composer Lili Boulanger. At the Opéra national de Paris: Beatrice di Tenda, 2024

Joelle Aoun is a set and film designer. After training as an architect at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Beirut, she obtained a master's degree in film set design at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in the UK.Over the years, she has collaborated on the sets of numerous films, including Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, Ridley Scott's The Last Duel, Olivier Dahan's Simone - Le voyage du siècle, Guillaume Canet's Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom and Tim Van Pattern's The Grand Master: Franklin in Paris.She recently designed the scenography for Ruinous Gods, a contemporary opera by Layale Chaker, with libretto by Lisa Shlesinger, presented at the Spoleto Festival in the U.S. and soon on tour.Debut at the Opéra national de Paris

Utopia is an international festival orchestra founded by conductor Teodor Currentzis to bring together the best musicians from all around the world. Utopia is structurally, financially, and organizationally independent of any other collectives and institutions. Utopia is an idealistic attempt to find an approach to music creation which makes it possible to reach the inner essence of a musical text. Musicians from dozens of countries take part in the project.The first Utopia concerts were given in October 2022. The orchestra performed some Stravinsky’s and Ravel’s pieces at some of Europe’s most important venues supporting the project, including Philharmonie Luxembourg, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Vienna Konzerthaus, and also in the Berliner Philharmonie. Since then, the Utopia Orchestra has gathered together five more times.In summer 2023 Utopia presented its interpretation of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and made its debut at the Salzburg Festival with concert performances of The Indian Queen and Mozart’s c-Moll Messe. To work on this programme, Teodor Currentzis also gathered the Utopia Choir, having invited artists singing in Europe’s leading theatres and ensembles.During the summer 2024, the Utopia Orchestra and Choir performed Don Giovanni staged by Romeo Castellucci, and Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Salzburg Festival. Utopia also performed Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in several European concert venues. 

Paris Opera debut

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Castor et Pollux from 1 December 2024 to 12 June 2025 at the Opéra Bastille