Before the extraordinary Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after his Shakespearean marathons, after Starmania, director Thomas Jolly took on the Paris Opera and the masterpiece of composer Charles Gounod, Roméo et Juliette.The behind-the-scenes of this creation, filmed over the course of a year, reveal the full complexity of the Paris Opera—both a dream factory and a colossal ship.But above all, this film is an immersion into the psyche of Thomas Jolly, into his vision of the work and of theater, with his flashes of insight as well as his impatience, his humor, and his sensitivity. A co-production by Ex Nihilo and Opéra National de Paris, with the participation of France Télévisions Directed by: Priscilla Pizzato © Ex Nihilo – Opéra national de Paris - 2025

Dans les coulisses de Roméo et juliette

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Opéra de Paris : Roméo, Juliette, Thomas et les autres

Before the extraordinary Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after his Shakespearean marathons, after Starmania, director Thomas Jolly took on the Paris Opera and the masterpiece of composer Charles Gounod, Roméo et Juliette. The behind

Priscilla Pizzato

Paris Opera: Romeo, Juliette, Thomas, and the others

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.

French-Danish soprano Elsa Dreisig studied at the Paris Conservatoire and the Hochschule für Musik, Leipzig. In 2016, she won the First Female Voice Prize of the Operalia Plácido Domingo competition. She was also voted Young Artist of the Year by the Opernwelt magazine and Vocal Discovery at the Victoires de la Musique Awards.In 2015, she joined the Staatsoper Unter den Linden’s Opera Studio (Berlin), and became a member of the Ensemble in 2017. She performed, among other roles, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) at the Salzburg Festival in 2020 and 2021, and the Countess Almaviva (Le Nozze de Figaro) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. She made her role debut as Anna Bolena at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2021, and returned there in 2022 in the role of Elisabetta (Maria Stuarda).In the summer 2023, she will make her debut in the title-role of Salomé at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, where she has already performed Micaëla (Carmen). She will also return at the Salzburg Festival as Juliette (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) and to perform concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.Elsa thrives on participating in what she identifies as exceptional events, even if they involve some risk. In 2017, she jumped in on a day’s notice to sing Haydn’s Creation with the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle. Last season, after giving concerts with two different orchestras in Copenhagen, the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden called on her to appear as Pamina (The Magic Flute) just a few hours later.As an exclusive recording artist with the label Erato, she released in January 2022 her third album, Mozart x 3.

At the Paris Opera: The Magic Flute (Pamina), 2017; Gianni Schicchi (Lauretta), 2018; Don Giovanni (Zerlina), 2019 ; I Puritani (Elvira), 2019

Dreisig.Elsa 2 (c) Simon Fowler

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, Edgardo de Ravenswood (Lucia di Lammermoor) 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 3 (c) Julia Wesely (1)

Lea Desandre trained as a singer in Venice under Sara Mingardo. In 2015, she joined William Christie’s Le Jardin des Voix, then the Académie of the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2016. She was named the Revelation of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2017 and “Female Singer of the Year” by Opus Klassik 2022. She is also a winner of the Prix de la Critique 2024.Recent highlights include her performances as Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Urbain (Les Huguenots), Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) and Timna (Samson). She sang the role of Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) in seven different productions since her debut in 2021: at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Paris Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Zurich Opera House, Lausanne Opera, Ravenna Opera and the Salzburg Festival.​Since 2018, she has performed every year at the Salzburg Festival, in particular as Despina (Cosi fan Tutti), Annio (La Clemenza di Tito), Valletto/Amore (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Venus (Orphée aux Enfers) or Abel (La Morte d’Abel). Last season, she appeared as Idamante (Idomeneo) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and as Ariodante (title-role) on a European tour&nbsp;The 2024/25 season sees her in Les Nuits d’Eté (Berlioz) with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, a new recital with Alexandre Kantorow and the Idylle programme with Thomas Dunford. At the Opera, she is also making her role debuts as Sapho / Iphise / Eglé (Les Fêtes d’Hébé) at Opera Comique and Poppea (Agrippina) at the Zurich Opera.At the Paris Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino), 2022; Roméo et Juliette (Stephano), 2023; Medea (title-role), 2024

Lea Desandre

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 Opéra national de Paris: Madame Butterfly (Suzuki), 1994, 1997; Mireille (Taven), 2009; Sancta Susanna (Alte Nonne), 2016; Les Contes d'Hoffmann (la Voix), 2020, 2023; Faust (Dame Marthe), 2021, 2022; Roméo et Juliette (Gertrude), 2023

Brunet-Grupposo.Sylvie. 3.(c) 

Polish tenor Maciej Kwaśnikowski began his vocal studies with Robert Nakoneczny in 2014. In 2015, he entered the Academy of the National Opera in Warsaw, where he worked with Izabela Kłosińska, Eytan Pessen and Matthias Rexroth. In 2017, he graduated in physics engineering from Poznań University of Technology, sang the role of Florville in Il Signor Bruschino with the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France, entered the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris, was part of the Salzburg Festival's Young Singers Project and the Académie du Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. At the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris, he plays Alfred in La Chauve-souris and Jeune Homme in La Ronde. He received the Cercle Carpeaux Lyric Prize 2018 and the AROP Lyric Prize 2019. He has performed the solo part in oratorios by Bach, Handel, Mozart, and notably Schubert's Mass in E-flat major with the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Salzburg Festival (2018) and with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich (2019). In 2019, he joins the Lindemann Program at New York's Metropolitan Opera, where his debuts and engagements are cancelled following Covid-19 until the end of the 2021 season. In 2022, he makes his debut as Ferrando (Così fan tutte) at the Opéra de Dijon and returns to the Salzburg Festival to perform Schubert's Mass in E-flat major with Camerata Salzburg under Franz Welser-Most. Next season, he will be Tamino (The Magic Flute) in Warsaw and Tours, as well as Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet) in Dresden. Maciej Kwaśnikowski has been studying with tenor Neil Shicoff since 2016. He is a member of the Troupe lyrique de l'Opéra national de Paris for the 2023-2024 season.At the Opéra national de Paris: Rigoletto (Matteo Borsa), 2021; Parsifal (a squire), 2022; Salomé (the Third Jew), 2022; Tristan and Isolde (a shepherd, a sailor), 2023; Hamlet (Second Gravedigger), 2023; Romeo and Juliet (Tybalt), 2023; Turandot (Pang), 2023; La Traviata (Gastone), 2024; Don Quixote (Rodriguez), 2024

Kwasnikowski.Maciej 2 © So'Art Studio

Thomas Ricart discovered singing at the Saint Louis de Gonzague de Paris choir school under the direction of Rémi Gousseau. After completing his business studies at ESSEC, he joined the Paris Conservatoire in 2016. In 2020, as a laureate of the Royaumont Foundation, he worked on the role of Pylade (Iphigénie en Tauride) with Benjamin Lazar and Alphonse Cemin. He joined the Opera Fuoco opera workshop as well as the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where he perfected his technique with Sophie Koch and José Van Dam. In March 2021, he sang the role of the Prologue (The Turn of the Screw) in a production by Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman. He sang the roles of Alfredo (La Traviata) and Rodolfo (La Bohème) during a masterclass given by Inva Mula. In December 2021, he made his Opéra Comique debut as Benvolio (Roméo et Juliette) in a production by Éric Ruf. In the spring 2022, he sang the roles of Liberto, Soldato 2, Famigliare 2 and Tribuni (L’Incoronazione di Poppea) with the Paris Opera’s Academy and the Poème Harmonique in a production by Alain Françon conducted by Vincent Dumestre. Alongside pianist Katia Weimann, he explores music chamber. Their duet has been formed with the help of Anne Le Bozec and support of Susan Manoff and Hartmut Höll. In August 2020, the two artists took part in the France Musique Summer Festival, featuring a program of French melodies. Thomas Ricart joined the Paris Opera’s Academy in September 2022. He has been taking part in all the concerts and recitals at the Amphithéâtre Olivier Messiaen at the Bastille Opera and at the Palais Garnier. He appeared, among other things, in the movie-recital Nocturne, vidéo en-chantée by Denis Guéguin. In the spring 2023, portrayed Dormont (La Scala di seta) at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet, and took part in the concerts tour Compositrices et mélodie française in Paris, Venice and at the Saarland Musikfestspiele. Thomas Ricart has the support of the Porosus Foundation.&nbsp;

Thomas Ricart

A former student of the Royal College of Music, Huw Montague Rendall trained with Russell Smythe, David Rendall and Philip Doghan. During summer 2016, he was a member of the Glyndebourne Festival’s Jerwood Young Artist, where he sang Fiorello (The Barber of Seville). The following summer he joined the Salzburg Festival Young Artists Programme, where he made his role debut as the Second Companion in Wozzeck. During two seasons at the International Opera Studio in Zurich, he sang Papageno (understudy - The Magic Flute), a Nazarene (Salome), Ramiro (L’Heure Espagnole), a Flemish Deputy (Don Carlo), the Third Clerk (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) and Yamadori (Madama Butterfly). He also performed Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) at the Glyndebourne Festival, the title-role in Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra de Rouen, Papageno with Glyndebourne on Tour, Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) at the Opéra national de Lorraine, Arlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Schaunard (La Bohème) at the Zurich Opera House, Marcello (La Bohème) at the Komische Oper Berlin and the Prince of Mantua (Fantasio) at the Garsington Opera. On the concert platform he sang Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Ned Keene (Peter Grimes) at the Enescu Festival, a “Mozart Matinee” series at the Salzburg Festival, Richard Blackford’s Pietà at the Cadogan Hall, Mendelssohn’s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Duruflé’s Requiem with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Liederabend in Nancy and Die Schöne Müllerin for Lancaster Arts. He
also sang Christus in an European tour of the Bach Trilogy: The Life of Christ, comprising of three
oratorios: The Christmas Oratorio, St
John’s Passion and The Easter
Oratorio.



In the 2022/23 season, he appears at the Komische Oper Berlin in Hamlet (title role), at the Opéra national du Rhin as Papageno, at the Hamburg Staatsoper as Guglielmo and at the Sante Fe Opera as Pelléas (Pelléas et Mélisande).At the Paris Opera: The Magic Flute (Papageno), 2022

Montague Rendall.Huw 2 (c) 

French-Mexican baritone Sergio Villegas Galvain first studied singing in Mexico, before continuing his training in France, where he graduated from the Lyon Conservatoire (CNSM). In September 2021, he joined the Jaroussky Academy.On stage, he portrayed various roles: Ben (Menotti’s The Telephone), Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) and the title-role in Don Giovanni with the Company I Giocosi, but also the Jailer (Dialogues des Carmélites), Ubalde (Gluck’s Armide), Papageno (The Magic Flute) during his studied at the Lyon CNSM. He also sang Belcore (L’elisir d'amore) with the Op’1a Company, and Marcello (La bohème) at the Théâtre d'Agen.On the concert platform, he has sung the Solo baritone in Fauré’s Requiem in Mexico and at the Basilica Notre Dame de Fourvière, in Lyon, Saint-Saëns’ Requiem at the Festival des Lumières, also in Lyon.He also performed the Solo baritone in Carmina Burana at the Colisée de Roubaix, and the roles of Dancaïre, Escamillo and Onegin at the Seine musicale under Mathieu Herzog. Recent performances include Dandini (Cenerentola) at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées and the Bordeaux and Rouen opera houses. Further projects include Figaro (The Barber of Seville) at the Wissant festival and Masetto (Don Giovanni) at the Opéra de Lille.Paris Opera debut&nbsp;

Villegas

Trained at the Académie de l'Opéra national de ParisBorn in Cyprus, Yiorgo Ioannou studied at the Royal College of Music in London. He completed his training at masterclasses, notably in Milan, Italy, where he received advice from Leo Nucci on Haydn's Il Mondo della Luna, which he performed with the Royal College of Music. Throughout his training, he performed in concert with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, at New York's Lincoln Center with pianist Cyprien Katsaris and, at Plácido Domingo's invitation, at Europa Nostra in Athens. Yiorgo Ioannou will join the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris in September 2021.He sang the role of Mercurio (Il Nerone - L'Incoronazione di Poppea) with the Académie artists and Le Poème Harmonique, directed by Alain Françon and conducted by Vincent Dumestre, at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet and on tour at the Dijon Opera and the Maison de la Culture in Amiens. This season, still with the Académie, he sings the role of Germano in La Scala di seta, directed by Pascal Neyron and conducted by Elizabeth Askren at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet.At the Opéra national de Paris: Salome (Zweiter Nazarener), 2022; Roméo et Juliette (Grégorio), 2023

Yiorgo Ioannou © Studio J'adore ce que vous faites ! - OnP

After studying in London, Laurent Naouri was soon invited to perform on numerous international stages. His repertoire includes some forty roles, from early Baroque to contemporary operas. Several incarnations have marked his career: the Four Devils in Les Contes d'Hoffmann in Madrid, Orange, Milan, Barcelona, New York and Aix-en-Provence, Golaud (Pelléas et Mélisande) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in Glasgow, Salzburg, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Los Angeles and most recently in Aix-en-Provence, Count Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro) in Aix-en-Provence and Tokyo, the title role in Falstaff in Lyon, Santa Fe and Glyndebourne, Sharpless (Madame Butterfly) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Germont (La Traviata) in Santa Fe, Tokyo, Dallas and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. He sang the role of Fieramosca (Benvenuto Cellini) in Amsterdam, the Marquis de La Force (Dialogues des carmélites) at Munich's Bayerische Staatsoper, Ruprecht (L'Ange de feu) at Opéra national de Lyon, Capulet (Roméo et Juliette), Pandolfe (Cendrillon) and the Marquis de La Force at New York's Metropolitan Opera, Don Gaspar (L'Ange de Nisida) in London, Mamma Agata (Viva la Mamma) at Opéra national de Lyon and Grand Théâtre de Genève, the title role in Don Pasquale in Tours and Dijon, Baron Scarpia (Tosca) at La Monnaie in Brussels, Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte) at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Caen, and Des Grieux (Manon) at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. In the 2024-2025 season, he will perform the role of Hamm (Fin de partie) in Berlin and the baritone part in Frank Martin's In terra pax in Munich. 

At the Opéra national de Paris: participation in numerous productions since 1994, including Manon (Des Grieux), 1997, 1998; Platée (Citheron / un sathyre), 1999, 2002; L'Élixir d'amour (Belcore), 2006, 2007 ; Madame Butterfly (Sharpless), 2019; Œdipe (the High Priest), 2021; Roméo et Juliette (Capulet), 2023; Don Pasquale (title role), 2023; Cendrillon (Pandolfe), 2023; Médée (Créon), 2024

Naouri.Laurent

Jean Teitgen graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with a singing prize and a Diplôme de Formation Supérieure. His vast repertoire ranges from Baroque to 20th-century music, with a predilection for the great Italian (Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti) and French repertoires (Auber's La Muette de Portici, Chabrier's L'Étoile, Pelléas et Mélisande, Samson et Dalila).In recent years, he has appeared in L'Amour des trois oranges (le Roi) in Geneva and Florence, La Bohème (Colline) in Montpellier, Les Vêpres siciliennes (Béthune) at London's Royal Opera House, Roméo et Juliette (Frère Laurent) in Monte-Carlo, Oman and Lisbon, Don Giovanni (Leporello) in Bergen and Rouen, Carmen (Zuniga) in Orange, Madrid, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and at London's Royal Opera House, Mârouf, savetier du Caire (le Sultan) in Bordeaux and at Opéra Comique, Pelléas et Mélisande (Arkel) at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, La Nonne sanglante (Pierre l'Ermite) at Opéra Comique, Lohengrin (King Heinrich) in Rouen and Nantes, Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo) in Toulon, Nancy and Bordeaux, Aida (Ramfis) in Nice and Nancy, Turandot (Timur) in Marseille, Guillaume Tell (Gessler) at Opéra national de Lyon, Simon Boccanegra (Fiesco) at Opéra national de Montpellier, La Gioconda (Alvise) at La Monnaie in Brussels.In July 2021 he sang Jacopo Lorendano (I due Foscari) at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and more recently Herod (L'Enfance du Christ) at the Festival Berlioz, Arkel in Compiègne, Gessler at the Vienna Staatsoper and Claudius (Hamlet) at the Salzburg Festival.At the Opéra national de Paris: Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Luther / Crespel), 2020; Yvonne, princesse de Bourgogne (le Chambellan), 2020; Platée (Jupiter), 2022; Les Capulet et les Montaigu (Capellio), 2022; Hamlet (Claudius), 2022; Roméo et Juliette (Frère Laurent), 2023; La Vestale (le Souverain Pontife), 2024; La Flûte enchantée (Zarastro), 2024.

Jérôme Boutillier first trained as a pianist and vocal coach before studying singing at the Boulogne conservatory.The 2016 ADAMI Revelation, he also won the Second Prize at the Marmande International Competition. He initiated a fruitful collaboration with the Palazzetto Bru Zane and made his house debut at the Opéra Comique as Luddorf (La Nonne Sanglante). In 2019, he won Second Prize for the 6th edition of the Paris Opera Competition at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.His repertoire includes the roles of Moralès (Carmen) at the Geneva Grand Théâtre, Bardi (Dante, Godard) in Saint-Étienne, Hagen (Sigurd, Reyer) at the Opéra national de Lorraine, Zurga (Les Pêcheurs de perles) in Toulon, Gaveston (La Dame blanche) at the Opéra Comique, Ralph (La Jolie Fille de Perth) and Zurga in a Bizet Gala at the Montpellier Opera, Zurga again at the Marseille Opera, Albert (Werther) in Montpellier, the title role of Don Giovanni at the Nuits lyriques de Marmande.Recent performances includes Parker (Les Éclairs by Philippe Hersant) and Capulet (Roméo et Juliette) at the Opéra Comique, the title role in Hamlet in Saint-Étienne, Oreste (Iphigénie en Tauride) in Rouen, Rodrigo di Posa (Don Carlo) in Marseille, Valentin (Faust) at the Opéra de Québec and Claudio (Béatrice et Bénédict) at the Berlioz Festival.In the 2022/23 season, he recorded the role of Philoctète (Déjanire) with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and then sang Marcello (La Bohème) at the Capitole, Toulouse, the Baron (La Vie Parisienne) at the Opéra royal de Wallonie, Germont (La Traviata) at La Seine Musicale, and Luddorf in Saint-Étienne.Future projects include Nelusko (L’Africaine) and Germont in Marseille, as well as Escamillo (Carmen) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and Albert in Genoa.



Paris Opera debut

Boutillier.Jérôme (c) Harcourt

Sohee Lee was born in Corea where she studied singing at the University of Chungnam. She then decided to pursue her studies in Italy in order to become thoroughly immersed in European culture and perfect her technique. She was awarded her diploma in 2002.She has performed in numerous concerts with orchestra in both Italy and Corea and also enjoys the ensemble work involved in chamber music. She took part in the world premier of Ferdinando Paer’s opera Camilla in Parma in the role of the son.She joined the Chorus of the Paris Opera in 2003 and gives regular performances of sacred music and opera.At the Paris Opera: Madame Butterfly (la Cugina), 2015 ; Cendrillon (a spirit), 2022

Seo-Hee Lee

Carlo Rizzi has worked extensively in the domain of symphonic music and opera, conducting not only the great repertoire classics but also rare works by Bellini, Cimarosa, and Donizetti. Since his debut in 1982 with Donizetti’s L’ajo nell’imbarazzo, he has conducted over a hundred operatic works, focusing not only on Italian opera but also on works by Strauss, Wagner, Britten, and Janáček.

He was Music Director of the Welsh National Opera from 1992 to 2001 and again from 2004 to 2008. Since 2015, he has held the title of conductor emeritus. Since September 2019, he has been the Music Director of Opera Rara, the British label dedicated to reviving forgotten or little-known operatic works, with which he has recorded Leoncavallo’s Zingari and Donizetti’s L’Esule di Roma.

He is frequently invited to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, the Paris Opera, the Teatro Real in Madrid, and more. He has conducted renowned orchestras such as the Hallé Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.

Recently, he has conducted Les Vêpres siciliennes, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Madama Butterfly at the Welsh National Opera; Tosca, La Bohème, Médée, Don Carlos, and Un ballo in maschera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; I due Foscari at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Il Proscritto at London’s Barbican Centre; La Gazetta at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro; La Fille du Far-West and Les Vêpres siciliennes at the Vienna Staatsoper; Il Tabarro at the Welsh National Opera; and Otello at the Royal Opera House in London.

During the 2024-2025 season, he will conduct, among others, La fiamma at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Rigoletto and Turandot at the Vienna Staatsoper, La Bohème at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, and Il Trovatore at the Royal Opera House in London.

At the Paris Opera: Norma, 1996; Simon Boccanegra, 1997; Rigoletto, 1998; La Cenerentola, 2002; Don Carlo, 2010; La Fille du Far-West, 2014; Cavalleria rusticana / Sancta Susanna, 2016; Cendrillon, 2022; Il Trovatore, 2023; Roméo et Juliette, 2023.

Comedian and stage director, Thomas Jolly trained with Olivier Lopez, Jean-Pierre Dupuy and René Pareja, while studying theatre. In 2003, he entered the French National School of Theatre TNB (Théâtre national de Bretagne) and where he worked with Jean-François Sivadier, Claude Régy, Bruno Meyssat, Marie Vayssière, Anton Kouznetsov...After completing his studies, he founded his own theatre company, La Piccola Familia. He staged Arlequin poli par l’amour de Marivaux in 2006, Toâ (by Guitry) in 2009 and Piscine (pas d’eau) by Ravenhill. From 2010 to 2014, he staged Shakespeare’s Henry VI, an 18-hour continuous trilogy performance, entirely performed at the Avignon Festival in 2014. This Shakespearian trilogy has since been completed with Richard III, that he both staged and performed. For the 2016 edition of the Avignon Festival, he created Le Ciel, la nuit et la pierre glorieuse, Les Chroniques du Festival d’Avignon and Le Radeau de la Méduse by Kaiser, and, for the 2018 edition, Thyestes by Seneca. For the opera, Thomas Jolly directed Fantasio at the Opera Comique in 2017, then Dusapin’s Macbeth Underworld at La Monnaie in Brussels in 2019.Since 2011, Thomas Jolly has been working as a teacher in several Conservatoires and National Schools. He was also successively associate artist for the Trident – Scène nationale de Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, the TNB – Théâtre national de Bretagne, the TNS – Théâtre national de Strasbourg, the Grand T – Théâtre de Loire-Atlantique.Since January 2020, he has been director of the Le Quai Centre dramatique national Angers Pays de la Loire. In 2022, he created The Dragon (Schwartz), the tetralogy Henry VI + Richard III (Shakespeare), and also revived the musical Starmania at the Seine Musicale.Thomas Jolly has been selected as the artistic director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2024 Games and the Paralympics in Paris.At the Paris Opera: Eliogabalo, 2016

After several roles in the theatre and opera in her home town of Wuppertal, Katja Krüger entered the Hamburg conservatory of dramatic arts in 1997. There, she worked with Monika Bleibtreu, Jutta Hoffmann and Pjotr Olev. In 1999, she moved to Rennes where she began, in 2002, her collaboration with the Théâtre des Opérations, a company she co-directed for ten years. In parallel, she completed her master degree in “Arts” at Rennes University.In 2007, alongside pianist Elisa Bellanger, she created as singer-comedian and for the Orchestre National de Bretagne the cabaret evening Berlin 1930. After several years of collaboration the two artists founded in 2014 the music and theatre company Le Diable en Personne. The company’s repertoire features a dozen of creations in the “German Kabarett” style and often works with the Orchestre National de Bretagne (Cabaret Interdit in 2016 and Black Bohemia in 2018, among others).She has been closely working for the last ten years with director Thomas Jolly (artistic collaborator, assistant director, dramaturge, actress) on various productions, for the theatre and opera: Musica Poetica, with the baroque Ensemble Les Cyclopes, 2011; Offenbach’s Fantasio at the Opéra Comique, 2017; Dusapin’s Macbeth Underworld (world premiere) at La Monnaie, Brussels, 2019 ; Schwartz’s Le Dragon at Quai, CDN d’Angers, 2022.In 2022, she directed for the Rennes Opera the Lyrisme de Rue ensemble for their first performance Dis-moi tes amours !. As assistant director, she also worked for Zabou Breitman, Jean Lacornerie and Marie-Eve Signeyrole.Between 2008 and 2020, she was municipal councillor and then deputy mayor in Rennes. She is currently a regional councillor responsible for decentralised cooperation and international solidarity.Paris Opera debut

Bruno de Lavenère graduated from the École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques (ENSATT) and now works as a set designer for opera, dance and theatre.In 2014, the Syndicat professionnel de la critique de théâtre, de musique et de danse awarded him the prize “best set design” in the opera category for Doctor Atomic (directed by Lucinda Childs). His many creations feature Actus with the Opéra national de Lyon’s Ballet (costumes), Armide and Re Orso at the Opéra Comique, LOIN TAIN at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, On purge bébé and Macbeth Underworld at La Monnaie in Brussels (costumes), Nabucco in Soleure, Faust in Quebec, Peer Gynt at the Opéra national de Lyon (costumes), L’Avare at the Comédie-Française, Le Dragon in Angers, Lancelot and Faust in Saint-Étienne, Akhnaten in Nice, L’Auberge du Cheval Blanc, Cendrillon and La Dame du lac in Lausanne, Boris Godunov and Otello in Monte-Carlo, Les Petites Noces at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, La Bohème at the Bolshoi in Moscow, Carmen in Hong Kong, Norma in Rouen and Mascate, Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci in Strasbourg, Maria Republica in Nantes, The Sleeping Beauty in Basel, Don Giovanni in Rouen, Il Trovatore in Lille, La Belle Hélène and Cendrillon in Geneva, La Vie parisienne, Doctor Atomic and Farnace in Strasbourg.He is currently working on the scenographies of La Fille de Madame Angot at the Opéra Comique, Henry VIII at the Bard College in New York and The Makropulos Case at the Opéra national de Lyon.

Paris Opera debut

Sylvette Dequest was trained in a Visual Arts school and worked as a fashion stylist for various press groups. From 1993 onwards, she devoted herself entirely to costume creation for theatre, opera and dance.She has been working with Julie Brochen, Pierre Diot, Philippe Lanton, Jean Claude Gallotta, Omar Porras, Jean Claude Penchenat, Hélène Delavault and Jean Claude Durand, Lukas Hemleb, Claude Guerre, Bruno Boulzaguet, Benjamin Charlery, François Verret, the Company LMNO, Mitia Fodotenko, Sandy Ouvrier, David Lescot, Brigitte Seth and Roser Montlo Guberna, Jacques Osinsky, Étienne Gaudillère, Sylvain Levitte, Benjamin Guillard, Alexandre Zeff. Her cinematic work includes the costumes for Tremblez tyrans, a medium-length film by Roy Lekus and Françoise Jolivet inspired by Stendhal's childhood.She met Thomas Jolly in 2011 and designed the costumes for Henry VI, Richard III, Thyeste, Le Dragon (Evgueni Schwartz). Her operatic work includes Fantasio (Offenbach) in 2017 at the Opéra Comique and Macbeth Underworld (Pascal Dusapin) in 2019 at La Monnaie in Brussels, which will be both revived at the Opéra Comique at the end of 2023.

Paris Opera debut

Trained at La Brèche (National centre for circus arts) in Cherbourg, Antoine Travert is passionate about new technologies, mixing traditional lighting and automatic spotlights in his creations.In 2010, he met Thomas Jolly and the Piccola Familia on the creation of Ravenhill’s Piscine (no water). In 2012, he joined the tour Et vous tu m'aimes with the group Brigitte as a lighting assistant. He designed the lighting for Shakespeare's saga Henry VI, directed by Thomas Jolly at the 2014 Avignon Festival.From 2015 and to this day, he has been collaborating with Thomas Jolly: Richard III at the TNB – Théâtre national de Bretagne in 2015, Le Radeau de la méduse (Kaiser) at the Avignon Festival in 2016, Fantasio (Offenbach) at the Opéra Comique in 2017, Thyestes (Seneca) at the Avignon Festival in 2018, Un jardin de silence, a musical show by Raphaële Lanadère and Thomas Jolly, Macbeth Underworld (Dusapin) at La Monnaie in Brussels in 2019, Le Dragon (Schwartz) at the Quai Centre dramatique national in Angers in 2022.Since 2020, Antoine Travert has also been working with other artists. He designed the lighting for Métamorphoses 2.0 (Gianni Forte) produced by Mikaël Bernard / Compagnie À corps rompus, worked on three creations at the Quai Centre dramatique national in Angers (M, staged concert by Clément Mirguet, Echappées directed by Charline Porrone and IAN, a show-concert directed by Flora Diguet) and collaborated with Raphaële Lannadère for the concerts Paysages (2021) and Cheminement (2022).At the Paris Opera: Eliogabalo, 2016

Josepha Madoki, also known as Princess Madoki, trained in urban dances and classical, modern and jazz techniques at the International Academy of Dance (Paris). As a dancer/performer, she has been collaborating with choreographers from all over the world, such as Damien Jalet, Wayne Mc Gregor, Pierre Rigal, Ousmane Sy, Robyn Orlin…She began her choreographic work in 2010 when she founded the Madoki Company and performed the solo Mes mots sont tes maux, winning 1st prize in “Paris Young talents” competition (2010). In 2016, Josepha Madoki joined Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and danced in shows such as Babel 7.16, and the operas Satyagraha, Alcest and Stoic. While working with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, she collaborated with Beyoncé, in the music videos Apeshit (filmed at the Louvre Museum), but also in Spirit and Bigger, filmed in Los Angeles.Josépha Madoki has become a leading figure of a dance called Waacking, increasingly developing in France and Europe, and she has been invited all over the world to participate and judge international Waacking events to promote this dance to new generations. She co-founded the first French Waacking Collective Ma Dame Paris, and created 2 shows: Waackez-vous Français ? and Oui, et vous ?In 2019, she founded her own Waacking Festival in Paris and Moscow: the All Europe Waacking Festival. In 2022, with the Madoki company, she created D.I.S.C.O. - Don't Initiate Social Contact with Others, a show that celebrates both the world of clubbing and Waacking culture on stage. The same year, she took part in the rock opera Starmania as assistant choreographer to Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Paris Opera Debut

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