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“I want a treasure which contains them all! I want youth!” Frustrated by the futile quest for knowledge, the erudite old Faust sells his soul to the devil in exchange for eternal youth and the beautiful Marguerite…Reworking the legend popularised by Goethe, Gounod focuses on the love story and elevates the significance of Marguerite’s fall and ultimate salvation. Choosing to lighten the narrative’s philosophical scope allows him to strike a balance between scenes where the supernatural calls for the visually spectacular and others depicting a universe governed by inward actions and feelings.Transposed to the present day, Tobias Kratzer’s Faust reflects on contemporary society’s obsession with eternal youth. His production’s sophisticated scenography oscillates between hyperrealism and magic, between the world of today and the mysterious atmosphere of German romanticism.The Paris Opera Orchestra and ChorusA coproduction of the Paris Opera and Cinétévé, with the participation of France Télévisions, With the exceptional support of Rolex, Timepiece of the Paris Opera, the Cercle Berlioz and the support of the Orange Foundation, patron of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts, and the Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image animée.Director: Julien Condemine © Opéra national de Paris – Cinétévé – 2021

<ul><li>Doctor Faust</li><li>Méphistophélès</li><li>Marguerite</li><li>Siebel: a student</li><li>Valentin: Marguerite’s brother</li><li>Wagner: a friend of Valentin</li><li>Dame Marthe: Marguerite’s neighbour</li></ul>

01-Faust 20-21 © Monika Rittershaus - OnP

18_faust_bastille_092

Faust

fr / en

Faust 21-22 © Charles Duprat - OnP (25)

“I want a treasure which contains them all! I want youth!”Frustrated by the futile quest for knowledge, the erudite old Faust sells his soul to the devil in exchange for eternal youth and the beautiful Marguerite… Reworking the legend popularised by 

Charles François Gounod

Charles Gounod was born in Paris on June 17. A student of Halévy, Lesueur and Paer, recipient of the Prix de Rome, he first lived in Italy, where he discovered Palestrina and Bach, but also Lully, Gluck, Mozart and Rossini.His close friendship with Henri Lacordaire, a major orator of the Dominican Order, and Charles Gay, future bishop of Poitiers, ignited in him a mystical fire which made him consider, for a time, priesthood. Though he never became a priest, he remained animated by a deep religious feeling which marks his entire work, especially his masses and oratorios (St. Cecilia Mass, Messe du Sacré-Cœur, Tobie, Mors et vita, etc).Soprano Pauline Viardo introduced him to the Paris Opera with a first commission, Sapho, in which she created the title-role in 1851. Despite a good reception, the opera did not stay long on the bill. His subsequent opera, The Bloody Nun, also presented at the Paris Opera in 1854, was not a success either. His next opera Le Médecin malgré lui, created in 1858 at the Théâtre‑Lyrique, gained excellent reviews and marked the birth of a fruitful collaboration with the two librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré.However, it is Faust, also premiered at the Théâtre‑Lyrique, in 1859, which brought him a long-lasting fame. Many works followed: La Reine de Saba (1862), Mireille (1864), Roméo et Juliette (1867), Cinq‑Mars (1877), Polyeucte (1878) and Le Tribut de Zamora (1881). But he never managed to repeat the triumph of his Faust, which remains an emblematic work of the French repertoire.He died on 18 October 1993 in Saint-Cloud of a stroke, while he was working on a Requiem. A state funeral was held in the Madeleine church, with Camille Saint-Saens at the organ and Gabriel Fauré conducting the choir.

Benjamin Bernheim studied with Gary Magby at the Lausanne Conservatoire. He took masterclasses with Giacomo Aragall, joined Carlo Bergonzi’s Accademia Verdiana in Busseto and was a young artist at the Zurich Opera. He is regularly invited to perform at the leading opera houses.Recent performances include, among others, Des Grieux (Manon) at the Opéra national de Bordeaux and Hamburg Staatsoper, Rodolfo (La Bohème) in Zurich, at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin and Vienna Staatsoper, Lenski (Eugene Onegin) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Alfredo (La Traviata) at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, in Zurich, at the Dresden Semperoper, in Berlin and at the Opéra national de Bordeaux, the title-roles in Faust at the Lyric Opera Chicago and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in The Tales of Hoffmann at the Hamburg Staatsoper and in Werther at the Opéra national de Bordeaux, Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) at the Vienna Staatsoper,&nbsp;Edgardo de Ravenswood (Lucia di Lammermoor)&nbsp;at the Zurich Opernhaus and Vienna Staatsoper.During the 2022/23 season, he portrayed the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) at the Vienna Staatsoper and Metropolitan Opera New York, Rodolfo also in Vienna, Lenski and Roméo (Roméo et Juliette) at the Zurich Opernhaus.He has given recitals at the Opéra national de Bordeaux, the Frankfurt Opera, the Opéra national du Rhin and the Munich Opera Festival, the Verbier and Salzburg Festivals.This season, he will perform Werther at the Zurich Opernhaus and La Scala in Milan, Ruggero Lastouc (La Rondine) at the Zurich Opernhaus and Romeo at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, among others.In 2020, he was awarded Lyrical Artist of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique, and “Musical Personality of the Year” by the Syndicat professionnel de la critique. His first album won a Diapason d’Or and was named a “Choc de Classica”. In 2021, he was named Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres.At the Paris Opera: Capriccio (Flamand), 2016 ; La Bohème (Rodolfo), 2017 ; La Traviata (Alfredo Germont), 2019 ; Manon (Des Grieux), 2020, 2022 ; Faust (title-role), 2021, 2022 ; Roméo et Juliette (Roméo, 2023)

Bernheim.Benjamin

Born in Albania, Ermonela Jaho studied singing at the Tirana Conservatoire and at the National Academy of St Cecilia, Rome. She lives in New York. Her repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the Verismo era and the Bel Canto. She performs on the leading international stages and is renown for her performances of Violetta Valery (La Traviata), Madama Butterfly, Suor Angelica (Il Trittico) and Adriana Lecouvreur.For the 2023/24 season, she appears in La Rondine at the Zurich Opera, The Human Voice at the Teatro Real Madrid, Suor Angelica at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, and in concerts for operatic galas in Athens, Barcelona, Valencia, Nice, Oviedo, London and the Wigmore Hall with Opera Rara.In 2023, she was nominated “Artist of the Year” at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA), and her recording of Turandot, released by Warner Classics / Erato, has been selected for the Best Opera Recording by the Gramophone magazine. She also won the 2021 ICMA vocal music prize with her album “Anima Rara”. As an ambassador of Opera Rara, she is committed to rediscovering forgotten operas of the 19th and 20th centuries.At the Paris Opera: La Traviata (Violetta Valery), 2014, 2018; Madama Butterfly (Cio-Cio San), 2015; The Tales of Hoffmann (Antonia), 2016; Les Huguenots (Valentine), 2018 ; Faust (Marguerite), 2021

Jaho

Christian Van Horn studied at Yale University and the Lyric Opera’s Center for American Artists in Chicago. In 2003 he was a winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and in 2018 he received the Richard Tucker Award.He has performed on the stages of numerous theatres including the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Rome and Stuttgart Operas, the Canadian Opera Company, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam.His repertoire of roles includes Figaro (Le Nozze de Figaro), Méphistophélès (Faust), Lindorf, Coppelius, Miracle and Dappertutto (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Escamillo (Carmen), Enrico VIII (Anna Bolena), Colline (La Bohème), Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Timur (Turandot), Banco (Macbeth), Oroveso (Norma), Zaccaria (Nabucco), Gessler (Guillaume Tell), and Frère Laurent (Roméo et Juliette).He also performed in the world premiere productions of Tan Dun’s Tea: A Mirror of the Soul in Santa Fe and Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel at the Metropolitan Opera.More recently, he sang the title role of Mefistofele, then appeared as Publio (La Clemenza di Tito), Colline (La Bohème) and the Doctor (Wozzeck) at the Metropolitan Opera; Count Walter (Luisa Miller) in Chicago; Claggart (Billy Budd) and Zoroastro (Orlando) in San Francisco, and Méphistophélès (Faust) at the Paris Opera.Christian Van Horn recorded the role of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) for Sony Classical and took part in the Metropolitan Opera’s HD Live broadcasts of Falstaff and The Exterminating Angel. Season 23/24 will see him as Jacopo Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra) in Philadelphia, Colline in New York, the title-role in Don Giovanni in Vienne and Raimondo Bidebent (Lucia di Lammermoor) in Munich.At the Paris Opera: Les Troyens (Narbal), 2019 ; La clemenza di Tito (Publio), 2021 ; Faust (Mephistopheles), 2021, 2022 ; Don Giovanni (title-role), 2022

Van Horn.Christian 1 (c) Dario Acosta

Florian studied piano and voice at the conservatoire in Libourne. He then joined the Bordeaux Conservatory in 2007 and won, the following year, the Opera First Prize and the Audience Award at the singing competition organised by the Bordeaux Opera’s Amis du Grand Théâtre.In 2010, he began a two-year spell at the Paris Opera’s Atelier Lyrique and in 2012, he received the Prix Carpeaux. In 2013, he was nominated in the Revelation Opera Singer category at the Victoires de la Musique Classique.His repertoire includes the roles of Figaro (The Barber of Seville), Papageno (The Magic Flute), Enrico Ashton (Lucia di Lammermoor), Valentin (Faust), the title role in Hamlet, Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Zurga (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Escamillo (Carmen), Alfonse XI (La Favorite). His large concert repertoire also includes the works of Mahler, Chausson, Puccini, Berlioz, Rameau, Vivaldi.He recently appeared as Figaro at the Théâtre national du Capitole in Toulouse, Dandini (La Cenerentola) at Teatro Real Madrid, Belcore (L’elisir d’amore) at the Donizetti Opera Festival, Orcan (Les Paladins) at the Versailles Royal Opera, Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, and as Count Almaviva at the Opéra national de Bordeaux.In the 2022/23 season, he sang Dandini at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Alfonse XI in Bergame then at the Opéra national de Bordeaux, Guglielmo at the Versailles Royal Opera, Henri Ashton in Tours and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Prosdocimo (Il turco in Italia) at the Teatro Real Madrid.At the Paris Opera: The Barber of Seville (Figaro), 2014, 2018; Platée (Momus), 2015; Béatrice et Bénédict (Claudio), 2017; The Magic Flute (Papageno), 2017, 2019 ; Don Pasquale (Dottor Malatesta), 2018, 2019; La Cenerentola (Dandini), 2018; Les Huguenots (Comte de Nevers), 2018; Les Indes galantes (Adario / Bellone), 2019; Faust (Valentin), 2021, 2022; Florian Sempey recital, 2022 (among others).

Florian Sempey

With a degree from Supelec (the senior institute of electrical studies), Christian Helmer began studying voice and decided to set his sights on the lyrical arts. He made his career debut performing several key roles including Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) and the title role in Don Giovanni at the Antibes Festival as well as Le Bret in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac, alongside Plácido Domingo, first at the Théâtre du Châtelet and then at the Teatro Real in Madrid. In Le Dernier Jour d’un condamné, he sang the role of Le Friauche, alongside Roberto Alagna his stage cellmate. He has also made guest appearances at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Orbazzano in Tancredi and Lord Cecil in Maria Stuarda). His other roles include Colline (La Bohème) and Escamillo (Carmen). Christian Helmer has also performed at numerous international venues including Gelsenkirchen and Nuremberg (Le Comte Ory, La Bohème, Otello, Donizetti’s L’Assedio di Calais, L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Dublin (Don Giovanni), Madrid, Amsterdam (Iphigénie en Aulide), Bari (the role of Pietro in Portici’s La Muette) and the Beiteddine Festival in Lebanon (in a Chorégies d’Orange production of La Bohème). More recently, at the Paris Opera, he sang the roles of Panthée (Les Troyens), Baron Douphol (La Traviata) and the Marquis of Granville in the world premiere production of Luca Francesconi’s Trompe‑la‑Mort. He also appeared as Chambellan in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg at the Lille Opera, King Herod (Hérodiade) at the Saint‑Étienne Opera, Charles-Simon Favart (Madame Favart) at the Opéra Comique, Limoges and Caen, and Count Capulet (Roméo et Juliette) at the Bordeaux Opera.

Helmer-Christian

Michèle Losier was born in Montreal and was a member of the San Francisco’s Merola Program, the Montreal Opera’s Atelier Lyrique and the Juilliard Opera Center in New York. She has performed in numerous productions at the Montreal Opera, the Seattle Opera, and the Boston Lyric Opera (Nicklausse in the Contes d’Hoffmann) and she made her Milan debut at La Scala in the role of Mercedes (Carmen) under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. Her success at the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 2005 opened the doors to the New York stage two years later with the role of Diane (Iphigénie en Tauride). Over the last few seasons, she has performed the title role in Charpentier’s Médée at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Lille Opera; Prince Charming in Cinderella at the Opéra Comique; Nicklausse and the Muse at the Liceu in Barcelona, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and La Monnaie in Brussels; Dorabella in Così fan tutte at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Salzburg Festival and the Paris Opera for her debut there; Siebel (Faust) at London’s Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera; Charlotte (Werther) in Sydney and Montreal; Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) in San Francisco and Washington; Ruggiero (Alcina) in concert with the Musiciens du Louvre and Marc Minkowski; Phoebé (Castor et Pollux) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Ascanio (Benvenuto Cellini) at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and the Paris Opera; Béatrice (Béatrice et Bénédict) at La Monnaie in Brussels; Angelina (La Cenerentola) at the Lyon Opera and the Edinburgh Festival; Concepcion (L’Heure espagnole) and Ascagne (Les Troyens) at the Paris Opera, Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena) at the Bordeaux Opera, Idamante (Idomeneo) at Milan’s La Scala, the title role in Carmen at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen and the Vienna Staatsoper, and Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. Michèle Losier also performs in concert with a repertoire that includes Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ, La Damnation de Faust and Les Nuits d’été, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis, Mozart’s Requiem and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle.

Losier.Michele.(c)

With more than 90 works in her repertoire, Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo has been invited, since her career debut, on the leading opera stages (Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Paris Opera, Opéra national de Lyon, Opéra national du Rhin, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Chorégies d’Orange, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Toronto, Tokyo, Santiago de Chile, Seoul, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Berlin, Copenhagen operas, La Monnaie in Brussels…).She has portrayed many title-roles, including Dalila (Samson et Dalila), the Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), Madame Lidoine and Madame de Croissy (Dialogues des carmélites), Taven (Mireille), Sélika (L'Africaine), the Nurse (Ariane et Barbe-bleue), Phaedra (Hyppolite et Aricie), Ottavia (L'incoronazione di Poppea), Jocasta (Œdipus Rex), Santuzza (Cavaleria rusticana), Azucena (Il Trovatore), Ebolie (Don Carlos), Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande), Gertrude (Hamlet), the Lead Vestal (La Vestale), Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera), Chief police officer (Clay Pigeon), Klementia (La Sancta Susanna), Dame Marthe (Faust).She is working with directors such as Robert Carsen, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Christophe Honoré, Olivier Py, Pierre Audi, Stéphane Braunschweig and Katie Mitchell. On the concert platform, she sings recitals and solos with conductors including Riccardo Muti, Gary Bertini, Antonio Pappano, Kurt Masur, Valery Gergiev, Marc Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Michel Plasson, Georges Prêtre, Ludovic Morlot, Kazushi Ono, Louis Langrée, Esa-Pekka Salonen.She won the AROP First Prize in 1988, the Claude Rostand Prize and the Vocation Foundation First Prize. In 2010, she discovered her father’s identity and decided to add his name, Grupposo, to her last name Brunet.At the Paris Opera: Madama Butterfly (Suzuki), 1994, 1997 ; Mireille (Taven), 2009 ; Sancta Susanna (Alte Nonne), 2016 ; The Tales of Hoffmann (the Voice), 2020 ; Faust (Dame Marthe), 2021, 2022

Brunet-Grupposo.Sylvie

After following the Cours Florent programme with François Florent and Francis Huster, Jean-Yves Chilot launched his career working with Robert Hossein. He has theatre credits with Jean-Pierre Dravel and Olivier Macé, Patrice Kerbrat, Daniel Colas, and Bruno Chapelle. In film, he has collaborated with Francis Veber, Gérard Pirès, Michel Boujenah, François Dupeyron, Pascal Chaumeil, Yvan Attal, Kamir Aïnouz. He has also worked in television with Jacques Renard, Jean-Daniel Verhaerghe, Jacques Fansten, Marcel Bluwal, Etienne Dhaene, Lucas Belvaux, Jean-Marc Brondolo, and Rebecca Zlotowski. Aided by the knowledge he has acquired during the course of his career; Jean-Yves Chilot enjoys coaching and teaching in theatre workshops. He has also directed several productions and overseen the artistic direction and logistical management on several theatrical tours.

Chilot.Jean-Yves

Tobias Kratzer was born in Bavaria. After studying art history and philosophy in Munich and Bern, he received training in theatre and opera direction at Bavaria’s August-Everding Theatre Academy. In 2008, he won a number of special prizes including First Prize at the International Ring Award Competition in Graz. Since then, he has directed numerous productions including a cycle featuring Meyerbeer’s three historical grand operas: Les Huguenots (Nuremberg and Nice), Le Prophète (Karlsruhe) and L’Africaine (Frankfurt). His productions of Die Meistersinger von Nürnburg and Gotterdammerung (Bremen, Weimar and Karlsruhe) were nominated for Best Production of the Year on several occasions and his production of The Csárdás Princess (Kálmán) received a nomination for The Austrian prize for musical theatre. In 2018, Die Deutsche Bühne named him “Director of the Year” and he also won the Faust Prize for Best Opera Director for his production of Gotterdammerung in Karlsruhe. His other productions include a version of Rigoletto for five pianos and chamber orchestra, a stage version of St John Passion and a trilogy based around the theme of Revolution comprised of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Le nozze di Figaro and Fidelio at the Wermland Opera in Karlstad. More recently, he has directed Lucio Silla at La Monnaie in Brussels, Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Amsterdam, Bastien et Bastienne and Una tragedia fiorentina in Halle, La forza del destino in Frankfurt, Der Zwerg at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, Aida in Tallinn, and Tannhäuser at the 2019 Bayreuth Festival. During the 2019-2020 season, he directed Guillaume Tell at the Lyon Opera and made his Royal Opera House debut in London with Fidelio.In 2020, the international magazine Opernwelt named him “Director of the Year”, and his production of Tannhäuser “Production of the Year”.

Rainer Sellmaier studied art history and drama at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, and then set and costume design at Salzburg’s Mozarteum.&nbsp;He has been collaborating with Tobias Kratzer since 2004 on joint projects that have taken them both to Brussels, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, Berlin (the Komische Oper and the Deutsche Oper), Sweden, Estonia and France.In 2008 he and Tobias Kratzer won the coveted Ring Award at the International competition for stage direction and stage design in Graz. He has created sets and costumes for numerous productions including Anna Bolena at the Lucerne Theatre, Der Rosenkavalier at the Bremen Theatre, La Forza del destino at the Frankfurt Opera, Tannhäuser at the 2019 Bayreuth Festival, Guillaume Tell at the Lyon Opera, and Fidelio at the Royal Opera House in London.&nbsp;He has received numerous nominations from the magazine Opernwelt for costume design—specifically for his productions of Tannhäuser at the Bremen Theatre and Götterdämmerung at the Staatstheater in Karlsruhe—and the set designs for Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Amsterdam, L’Africaine at the Frankfurt Opera, Gluck’s Telemaco at the Schwetzingen Festival and Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival.

Michael Bauer has been chief lighting designer for the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich since 1998.He has collaborated with numerous directors in Munich including Luc Bondy, David Bosch, August Everding, Andreas Dresen, Claus Guth, Richard Jones, Yannis Kokkos, Peter Konwitschny, Jurgen Rose, and Roland Schwab on a host of productions ranging from Tosca and Don Carlo to Nabucco, Die Fledermaus, Der fliegende Holländer, Tristan und Isolde, Jenůfa, Die Zauberflöte, Medea, Guillaume Tell, L’elisir d’amore, Orfeo, Arabella, and Mefistofele. He has also worked in theatres in Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Madrid, London, San Francisco, New York, Milan, Antwerp, Ghent, Basle, Athens, Saint Petersburg, Paris, Bilbao, Rome, Lisbon. Michael Bauer regularly collaborates with Calixto Bieito (Boris Godunov, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Così fan tutte, Tannhäuser, La Juive, Oresteia, Tosca, Moses und Aron, Simon Boccanegra, Elias, Le Grand Macabre, and Falstaff). These last seasons, he created the lighting for Lohengrin and The Merry Wives of Windsor at Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Hänsel und Gretel, Lear, Idomeneo, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tosca, The Nose, L’Elisir d’amore, The Magic flute, Peter Grimes, Hanjo and Sémélé at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Manon, Falstaff and Fidelio at the Hamburg Staatsoper, Don Quichotte and Samson et Dalila at the Mariinsky Theatre, Der fliegende Holländer at the Munich Opera Festival, Rigoletto, Irrelohe and Bluthaus at the Lyon Opera, Tristan und Isolde at the Vienna State Opera, Tannhäuser at the Leipzig Opera, La gazza ladra at the MusikTheater an der Wien, La Guerre et la Paix at the Budapest Opera.At the Paris Opera: Werther, 2009 ; La Cenerentola, 2011 ; Simon Boccanegra, 2018 ; Faust, 2022

Manuel Braun is a director and video artist. As a director, he has worked at the Karlsruhe Staatstheater and the Munich Volkstheater. He has collaborated regularly with Tobias Kratzer, most notably on productions at the Frankfurt Opera (La Forza del destino), La Monnaie in Brussels (Lucio Silla), the Royal Opera House in London (Fidelio) at the Halle Opera House (Bastien et Bastienne), the Bayreuth Festival (Tannhäuser), at the Komische Oper in Berlin (The Gypsy Baron) and at the Teatro Real in Madrid (Moses and Pharaoh).He rose to prominence among a wider opera audience through his video work for Le Prophète in Karlsruhe. After training as a video editor and assistant cameraman, he began collaborating as a video designer with Tomas Schweigen, Simon Solberg, and Christian Stückl in Karlsruhe, Mannheim, and Munich. He has also created videos for the British poet Kate Tempest (notably, Europe is lost which won the Silhouette Association Jury Prize in 2017). His short film Antigone earnt him an invitation to speak at the Berlin Theatertreffen whilst his digital production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was met with international acclaim.

Lorenzo Viotti was born in Lausanne into a family of musicians. After studying piano, voice and percussion in Lyon, he trained to be a conductor under Georg Mark in Vienna, while at the same time performing as a percussionist in a variety of different ensembles including the Vienna Philharmonic. He went on to hone his skills in Weimar under the guidance of Nicolas Pasquet. He made his opera debut conducting Le nozze di Figaro at the Schönbrunn Theatre in 2013. That same year, he won the International Conducting Competition in Cadaquès (Spain). Two years later, at the age of 25, he won the highly prestigious Young Conductor Award at the Salzburg Festival. In 2016, he made his debut leading the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Verbier Chamber Orchestra as well as the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival. In 2017, he conducted several concerts at the Salzburg Summer Festival and shared the rostrum with Christian Thielemann for a concert honouring Herbert von Karajan to mark the 50th anniversary of the Easter Festival. He has conducted numerous symphony orchestras including the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Staatskapelle the Orchestre National de France, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Radio Munich Orchestra, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also been musical director of the Gulbenkian Orchestra since the 2018-2019 season and he was recently appointed as the principal conductor of the Dutch National Opera and the Dutch Philharmonic Orchestra—a role he will assume at the beginning of the 2021-2022 season. Over the last few years, he has conducted La Belle Hélène at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Rossini’s La Cambiale di matrimonio at La Fenice in Vence, Carmen and La Bohème in Klagenfurt, Rigoletto in Stuttgart and Dresden, Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma at the Lyon Opera, Werther in Zurich, Klagenfurt and Frankfurt, Tosca at the New National Theatre in Tokyo and the Frankfurt Opera, and Carmen, first at the Hamburg Staatsoper and then for his debut at the Paris Opera. During the 2019-2020 season, he made his debut at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam with Pagliacci / Cavalleria rusticana and conducted Manon Lescaut in Frankfurt, Roméo et Juliette at Milan’s La Scala, Madame Butterfly in Dresden and La Bohème at the Paris Opera. Lorenzo Viotti received the Newcomers Award at the 2017 International Opera Awards.

Born in Buenos Aires and of Italo-Argentian nationality, José Luis Basso studied piano and orchestral conducting at the University of his hometown. He was appointed Chorus Master at the Teatro Argentino in La Plata where he spent four years preparing operatic and choral works. In 1987, a grant permitted him to pursue his studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. In 1989, he took up the post of Chorus Master at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. That same year, he conducted the chorus of the Buenos Aires Wagner Association and in 1994, he became assistant to the celebrated Chorus master at La Scala Milan, Romano Gandolfi. He was then appointed Chorus Master at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples where he brought to the Opera Chorus a new dynamism, his conducting of Lohengrin and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony attracting considerable acclaim. In 1996, he joined the Maggio Musicale Fiorentine where he prepared the choir for Parsifal conducted by Semyon Bychkov, Turandot with Zubin Mehta and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for which he received the INA-Assitalia Galileo Prize for young conductors 2000. In April 2001, he accompanied the Orchestra and Chorus to Tokyo for the inauguration of the “Italy in Japan 2001” event. He has made a number of recordings for Decca including Turandot, La Bohème, Tosca and Aroldo. As chorus master, he has been invited to the Shanghai Opera, the Mariinski Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Lyon Opera for Aïda and Carmina Burana. In 2003, he won a Grammy Award with the Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the soprano Renée Fleming for the album Bel Canto. In the course of the last two decades, he has worked alongside many of the world’s leading conductors: Zubin Mehta, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Georges Prêtre, Antonio Pappano, Seiji Ozawa, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Carlo Maria Giulini, Myung-Whun Chung, Peter Schreier, Bruno Bartoletti, Rafael Frühbeck De Burgos, Semyon Bychkov, Daniel Oren, Valery Gergiev, Stéphane Denève, Jordi Savall, Fabio Luisi, Marc Piollet, Pinchas Steinberg, Michael Boder, Sebastian Weigle, Gerd Albrecht and Josep Pons. From 2004 to 2014 he was Chorus Master and Artistic Consultant at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelone. Since September 2014 he has been Chorus Master of the Paris Opera.

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