Behind the comic plot of La Finta giardiniera lies a subtle portrait of human passions. Sandrina, a Marchioness disguised as a gardener, is seeking to escape her tumultuous past: she was stabbed by her lover, Count Belfiore, and left for dead. Reunited in the local judge’s mansion, the former lovers find themselves embroiled in a series of quiproquos and disguises, before everything is unravelled in a happy reconciliation. In 1775, aged just eighteen, Mozart composed La Finta giardiniera for the Munich Carnival. The young composer skilfully blends recitative, arias and ensembles, already revealing the humour and humanity that would characterise his future masterpieces. This opera is performed by the Paris Opera Academy’s artists in residence in Julie Delille’s new staging.

La Finta giardiniera (saison 25/26) - 9

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La Finta giardiniera

26-27

Behind the comic plot of La Finta giardiniera lies a subtle portrait of human passions.Sandrina, a Marchioness disguised as a gardener, is seeking to escape her tumultuous past: she was stabbed by her lover, Count Belfiore, and left for dead. Reunite

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

La Finta Giardiniera

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg. A child prodigy (he took his first harpsichord lessons when he was 4 and began composition at 6), he quickly became famous, thanks to the many tours he made with his father, Leopold, who was himself vice chapel-master at the court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, as well as a mentor and teacher to his son. At the age of 16, Mozart was appointed concertmaster to the new Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus von Colleredo. He was commissioned to compose works to the tastes of his day and asked to perform. But he quickly grew tired of the confining environment of Salzburg and, in 1777, he resigned his position at the court. In 1779, he became the resident organist at the Salzburg cathedral, then settled in Vienna. He performed for the Court, gave music lessons and piano concerts, while being vice chapel-master at the cathedral. His Don Giovanni was a huge success in Prague but was poorly received in Vienna. Mozart's health was declining and he spent the last years of his life in poverty. He died on the night of 5 to 6 December 1791: he was not yet 35 years old. He was buried in a common grave, due to sanitary measures but also because of his family's destitution. In spite of his early death, Mozart created in 30 years one of the greatest legacy in music history, comprising classical masterpieces in almost every musical genre: opera, sacred music (including his famous Requiem), symphonic, concert or chamber music... His operas include some early works such as La Finta semplice, Mitridate re di Ponto, Lucio Silla, or La Finta giardiniera. Composed in 1781 Idomeneo started to reveal Mozart's personality. Then Il Seraglio, composed the next year, marked his true independence as an artist and the beginning of his mature masterpieces: Le Nozze di Figaro in 1786, Don Giovanni in 1787, The Magic Flute in 1791. With La Clemenza di Tito Mozart returned to the seria genre.

After four years at the Shanghai Conservatory in Wu Bo's class, Yu Shao obtained his Bachelor of Music degree in 2008. That same year, he decided to move to France to continue his studies. He worked on his vocal technique with Eléonore Jost and Leontina Vaduva. In 2012, he joins the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium and perfects his vocal technique with Jose Van Dam. He won fourth prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2014 and third prize in the Toulouse Competition that same year. With the Académie de l'Opéra National de Paris, which he joined in 2014, he sang the roles of Pylade (Iphigénie en Tauride) at the Théâtre de Saint Quentin en Yvelines and Ferrando (Cosi fan tutte) at the Maison des Arts de Créteil and the Théâtre d'Antibes. He subsequently sang in productions of Aïda and Lucia di Lammermoor (as Normanno) at the Opéra Bastille, Mozart's Requiem at the Opéra de Saint-Etienne, the role of Steurmann (Der Fliegende Holländer) at the Opéra de Lille and Bénédict in Camille Saint-Saëns's Le Timbre d'Argent at the Opéra Comique. Plus, he performs in Recital at the Amphithéâtre Bastille and records, with Hervé Niquet and the Brussels Philharmonic, Gounod's cantatas Fernand and La Vendetta (forthcoming). He then sang at the Opéra de Bordeaux and the Opéra Comique in the production of Mârouf. He appeared as the Shepherd and the Sailor in a concert version of Tristan and Isolde at the Opéra de Montpellier, then as Steurmann (Der Fliegende Holländer) at the Opéra de Rennes, Nantes and Angers. In summer 2021, he reinterpreted the role of Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte with Opéra Fuoco conducted by David Stern . He sang a concert of French and Italian operas at L'Opera de Dijon. He will perform the role of Ismaël Nabucco in Erfurt (Germany) as part of the Domstufen Festspiele in 2022, and at L'Opéra Comique de Paris he will sing Marcellus et deuxième Fossoyeur ( Hamlet) and Tybalt(Roméo et Juliette ). At the Paris Opéra he will also sing Ruiz in Il Trovatore in 2021. He also sang the role of Nemorino in L'Elisir D'Amore at the Opéra de Bordeaux in 2022. In the 2022-2023 season, he sang in two productions at the Aachen Theater as Raffaele in Stiffelio and Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon. In July 2023, he made his debut at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in the closing concert of the festival, singing Arthur in Donizetti's Lucie de Lamermoor. He will soon be performing Don Jose in Carmen at the Aachentheater, and in June 2024 he will sing Tamino and Belmonte with Jérémie Rhorer in Israel.

Shao.Yu

American-Norwegian
tenor Bergsvein Toverud holds a master's degree from the Eastman School of
Music and a bachelor's degree from Furman University. He appeared as Romeo in
Gounod's Roméo et Juliette in Central City Opera's family production.As
part of Palm Beach Opera's Bailey Apprentice Artist program, Bergsvein Toverud
participates in numerous concerts and has performed several roles, including
Bardolpho in Verdi's Falstaff, in the company's first production of the
opera. He received an Encouragement Award from the George and Nora London
Foundation in 2023, as well as an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan
Opera's Laffont Competition. He is also a finalist in the 2021 Friends of
Eastman Opera Aria Competition.Bergsvein
Toverud joins the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris in September 2024.

Bergsvein TOVERUD

Member of the Paris National Opera Lyric TroupeIsobel Anthony holds a Master’s degree in Voice and Opera from Northwestern University and a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics from Yale University. In 2025, she was a finalist in the Tenor Viñas Competition and received the Santa Fe Opera Excellence Award.She has performed roles including the Narrator (Jason and the Argonauts by Gregory Spears) in Chicago, The Woman / Jenny (The Righteous by Gregory Spears) in Santa Fe, Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), and Iris (Semele) at Wolf Trap Opera. She has participated in world premieres of David Lang’s In Nature and works by Max Vinetz and Hannah Gruendemann, and performed Diana (If I Were You by Jake Heggie).With the Paris Opera Academy, of which she has been a member from 2024 to 2026, she has performed roles including Sylvia (L’isola disabitata) and Sandrina (La finta giardiniera). Last season, she made her debut at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Saint-Saëns’s Christmas Oratorio, performed Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro) in Santa Fe, and was an artist in residence at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. She is a member of the Paris National Opera Lyric Troupe for the 2026–2027 season.Paris Opera debut.

Anthony Isobel 

Amandine Portelli began her artistic training in classical dance and discovered singing at the age of 8 when she joined the Chœur de Filles de la Maîtrise de Bordeaux choir, conducted by Alexis Duffaure. She enrolled at the Bordeaux Conservatory in 2019 in Maryse Castets' singing class and obtained her DEM in 2024.In 2020, she sang her first Mozart Requiem (alto solo) under the direction of Salvatore Caputo. During the 2021-2022 season, she is the alto soloist in Bach's Magnificat conducted by Raphaël Pichon for a conservatory project, the soloist in Germaine Tillion's Verfügbar aux enfers, and in a tribute concert to Farinelli conducted by Thomas Tacquet-Fabre. She also sings opera excerpts for a UNISSON concert.In February 2023, at just 19 years old, she performed the title role in Dido and Aeneas at the first Bordeaux National Opera Academy, then continued her collaboration with this institution through several recitals and the role of Maria in Porgy and Bess.In November 2023, she made her debut on the stage of the Palais Garnier in the roles of the Cat and the Squirrel in Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, conducted by Patrick Lange. In June 2024, she sang Vivaldi's Nisi Dominus with the Ensemble Les Surprises.She has honed her skills in masterclasses alongside numerous artists, including William Christie, Karine Deshayes, Edwin Crossley-Mercer, Susan Graham, and Laurent Naouri. She won first prize at the Béziers International Opera Singing Competition in 2024 and the junior edition (ages 16–18) of the Bellan Competition and the Cap Ferret Music Open in 2021.Amandine Portelli joined the Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris in September 2024. Since then, she has performed the role of Costanza (L’Isola disabitata) under the direction of François Lopez-Ferrer. She is scheduled to perform in all concerts during the 2024–2025 season, including the tribute to Bizet and his contemporaries in Venice and Paris, in partnership with the Palazetto Bru Zane. In March 2025, she participated in the L’Opéra en Guyane program in Cayenne.

Amandine PORTELLI

Member of the Paris National Opera AcademyBorn in Dnipro, Ukraine, Daria Akulova holds degrees in singing and piano and is a laureate of the All-Ukrainian competition. Between 2017 and 2023, she studied classical singing at the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy in Kiev, where she obtained a bachelor's and then a master's degree. She has performed roles such as Marfa (The Tsar's Bride), Amour (Orpheus and Eurydice), Annina (La Traviata) and Brigitta (Iolanta). In 2022, she received the Presidential Scholarship for Young Artists in Music, studied at the Bern University of the Arts and won first prize at the International Music Competition in Lugano.In 2023, she joined the Swiss opera studio MA Bern University of the Arts and was awarded a scholarship from the Lyra Foundation. Daria Akulova joined the Paris National Opera Academy in September 2024 and took part in the exchange between the Academy and the Lindemann Young Artist Development Programme in New York in February 2025. In June 2025, she took part in the 43rd Hans Gabor Belvedere International Singing Competition, where she qualified for the semi-finals and received, as a special prize, an engagement with the Wexford Festival Opera for the 2026 season.Debut at the Paris National Opera

Daria AKULOVA

Member of the Paris Opera Academy Born in Paris and based in Bordeaux, the Franco-Iranian-Moroccan soprano Sima Ouahman began her musical studies with piano at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Bordeaux, where she discovered opera and joined the class of Maryse Castets. She continued her training in masterclasses with Claudia Visca, David Bizic, Béatrice Uria-Monzon, Jean-François Lombard and Benoît Dratwicki. She made her debut in 2019 as Papagena (The Magic Flute) at the Musique en Ré Festival. In 2021, she took part in the Unisson Association’s concert at the Auditorium of the Opéra National de Bordeaux. She subsequently appeared as Spinette (La Vénitienne by Michel de La Barre) at the Opéra de Limoges, in collaboration with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. Returning to the Musique en Ré Festival in 2022, she sang the role of Parthoenis (La Belle Hélène) and performed in Bach’s Magnificat under the direction of Raphaël Pichon. Sima Ouahman joined the Paris Opera Academy in September 2023 and has since appeared in Ted Huffman’s Street Scenes and Simon Valastro’s L’isola disabitata. In 2025, she was awarded the AROP Lyric Prize for the 2023–2024 season. At the Paris Opera: L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (a shepherdess), 2023

Sima OUAHMAN

Clemens
Frank studied singing at Vienna's University of Music and Performing Arts in
the class of Professor Martin Vacha, where he obtained his Bachelor's degree
with honors and then began the “Vocal Performance” Master's program, in which
he studied with such renowned musicians as Florian Boesch, C.U. Meier and
Hartmut Keil. He takes part in the Salzburg Festival, where he makes his solo
debut and sings with the Deutsche Radiopharmonie under Elias Grandy. Audiences
have seen him in the role of Count Almaviva in Mozart's Nozze di Figaro
at the Munich Kammeroper, Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the
Klassik Klang festival in Berndorf in 2022, the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene
Onegin at Schönbrunn Palace Theater, Dr. Falke in Die Fledermausen at the
Salzburg Festival, and the title role in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the
Salzburg Festival. Falke in Strauss's Die Fledermaus and as
Pluton/Aristeus in Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in der Unterwelt. Back
at Schönbrunn, Clemens Frank performs the roles of Gran Sacerdote in Mozart's Idomeneo
and Herr Fluth in Nicolais's Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor.He was a
finalist in the “SWR Junge Opernstars 2024 - Emmerich Smola Förderpreis” and
won Elina Garanca's “Zukunftsstimmen” competition. He is also winner of the
Lions Music Award Austria and recipient of a performance grant from the Anny
Felbermayr Fund.Clemens
Frank joins the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris in September 2024.

Clemens FRANK

A native of Montpellier, Chloé Dufresne studied voice, viola, and choral conducting before earning a master's degree in orchestral conducting from the Sibelius Academy in 2020. Winner of the Malko and Besançon conducting competitions in 2021, she is conductor-in-residence at the Lucerne Festival in 2022, Dudamel Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2022-2023, and conductor-in-residence at the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris in 2023-2024. In September 2024, she was appointed Associate Artist of the Orchestre national de Bretagne and Artistic Director of the Orchestre Ostinato.In recent seasons she has debuted with the Vienna Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, Munich Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre philharmonique royal de Liège, Gävle Symfoniorkester and Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. Chloé Dufresne regularly conducts in France, working with the Orchestre national de France, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre national de Bordeaux, Orchestre national de Lille and Orchestre de l'Opéra de Montpellier.She conducts several orchestras in Scandinavia, including the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. Her experience as a vocal and choral conductor led her naturally to opera. She has conducted Don Giovanni, Norma, Britten's Albert Herring and Offenbach's Pomme d'Api for the Opéras de Rouen, Toulon, Nice and the Opéra national de Lorraine, as well as a production of the Ring for children in Bayreuth and at the Helsinki Festival. Last season she conducted a new production of L'Élixir d'amour at the Angers Nantes Opéra, Faust at the Opéra de Vichy and Le Voyage dans la Lune at the Opéras de Massy, Metz, Reims and Rouen.

A graduate of the École de la Comédie de Saint-Étienne, Julie Delille worked there under the direction of Jean Claude Berutti, François Rancillac and Jean-Marie Villégier. After several years as a performer and drama teacher (Conservatoire d'Orléans, Université d'Angers), she decided to devote herself to directing. In 2015, she founded the Théâtre des trois Parques around themes dear to her heart - living, languages and the female figure.In 2018, she created Je suis la bête by Anne Sibran (Printemps des Comédiens, Festival Impatience, MC93...), the same year Le Journal d'Adam et Eve by Mark Twain. Seul ce qui brûle by Christiane Singer in 2020, presented at the TGP in Saint-Denis, the CDNs in Limoges, Tours, Orléans, Valence and elsewhere. In 2023, Le Métier du Temps - La Jeune Parque after Paul Valéry and La très Jeune Parque by Alix Fournier-Pittaluga were presented at the Gallia Théâtre in Saintes, then at the MC in Bourges and the Théâtre Nanterre - Amandiers.In 2024, she directed Und, after Howard Barker, composed by Daniel d'Adamo, with Ensemble TM+ (Opéra de Massy, Maison de la Musique de Nanterre). In the same year, she premiered William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale at the Théâtre du Peuple.Julie has been an associate artist at the Scènes Nationales de Châteauroux, Bourges and Blois, and at the CDN de Limoges, where she worked at the Académie de l'Union. In 2023 and 2024, she will be working with young performers from the Belle Troupe des Amandiers in Nanterre. Then with students from the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris, with whom she will stage La Finta Giardiniera at the MC93.Julie Delille is director of the Théâtre du Peuple de Bussang.

Clémence Delille is a set and costume designer who will graduate from the École du Théâtre National de Strasbourg in 2019. A graduate of the Atelier de Sèvres in Paris and the Haute École des Arts du Rhin in Strasbourg, she regularly works with the set and costume workshops for the shows Meurtres de la princesse juive, eddy, and Les Disparitions - tandis que le monde brûle. In 2015, she founded the Théâtre des trois Parques with Julie Delille, with whom she collaborated on Je suis la bête (Equinoxe, 2018), Paul Valéry's La Jeune Parque and Alix Fournier Pittaluga's La Très Jeune Parque (2023). At the Théâtre du Peuple de Bussang, she designed the sets for Le Conte d'Hiver (2024) and Hériter des Brumes (2025).With Edith Biscaro and Eddy D'aranjo, she founded the company Objet Bleu et Brutal. Their first show, Après Jean-Luc Godard - je me laisse envahir par le Vietnam, premiered in 2021 at La Commune - Centre dramatique national d'Aubervilliers. In February 2026, they create Triste Tigre at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe. Clémence Delille works with Caroline Arrouas (Delphine & Carole, soon to be Dora et Franz) and regularly with Pascal Rambert (Mont Vérité, Architecture, Dreamers et Dreamers #2, Perdre son sac, Finlandia), Madeleine Louarn and Jean-François Auguste (Opérette, Gulliver ou le dernier voyage, to be premiered at the Festival In d'Avignon in 2021, soon to be L'amour, l'amour, l'amour).

Elsa Revol is a lighting designer for theater, opera, circus and performance. At Théâtre du Soleil, which she joined in 2007, she designed the lighting for Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir (collective creation, 2010) and Shakespeare's Macbeth directed by Ariane Mnouchkine (2014), and accompanied the lighting design for Une Chambre en Inde (2016).She was the lighting designer for Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard by Marivaux and Le Tartuffe by Molière directed by Galin Stoev (Comédie-Française, 2014). She then lit Shakespeare's Othello for Léonie Simaga (2014) and Faust directed by Valentine Losseau and Raphaël Navarro (2018) at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. Her artistic collaboration with Galin Stoev continues with Marivaux's Le Triomphe de l'Amour (Théâtre Gérard Philipe de Saint-Denis, 2013), Yana Borissova's Les Gens d'Oz (La Colline - théâtre national, 2016), Yvan Viripaev's Insoutenables Longues Étreintes (Théâtre de la Cité de Toulouse, 2018), Marivaux's La Double Inconstance (2020), Brateberg's IvanOFF (2021) and Checkov's Uncle Vanya (2023).She met Wajdi Mouawad for the creation of Fauves (La Colline - théâtre national, 2020). Elsa Revol collaborated with Julie Delille for the lighting design of Je suis la Bête (Equinoxe, 2018), Seul ce qui brûle (Maison de la Culture de Bourges, 2020), La Jeune Parque by Paul Valéry and La Très Jeune Parque by Alix Fournier Pittaluga. She recently designed the lighting for Le Conte d'Hiver at the Théâtre du peuple de Bussang. Her operatic creations include Les Noces de Figaro, directed by Galin Stoev (2015) and Der Freischutz, staged by the compagnie 14:20 under the musical direction of Laurence Equilbey.

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