Act I

Act II

image-1

Pelléas et Mélisandre, the true/false story

Couv_PelleasMelissande2425

Libretto

Where does Mélisande come from and what did she endure before losing her way in the forest of Allemonde? The drama unfolds in a mysterious world of dark caves and sleeping waters: Pelléas, Golaud’s half-brother, and Mélisande fall in love, arousing the jealousy of Golaud, who has married the young girl. In 1892, Claude Debussy, very much taken with Maurice Maeterlinck’s play, found it to be the ideal libretto for the musical form he had in mind: a lyric drama in which the characters would sing “like natural people”. Ten years later, this ground-breaking opera was premiered to great scandal. Wajdi Mouawad explores this fascinating work in his second production for the Paris Opera.

Arkel: Old king of Allemonde (an imaginary country) Golaud: Arkel’s grandson, a widower who has married Mélisande Pelléas: Golaud’s half-brother Mélisande: Young woman of mysterious origins, Golaud’s wife Geneviève: Mother of Golaud and Pelléas Little Yniold: Golaud’s son by a former marriage

20250217_PELLEASETMELISANDE_Ge-piano_63_Benoîte-Fanton

PELLEAS-MELISANDE_HP-DESKTOP

Pelléas et Mélisande_live_FR

Pelléas et Mélisande_live_EN

2018-19-DELAG-084 - Opéra Bastille

Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy, from 28 February to 27 March 2025 at the Opéra Bastille

Where does Mélisande come from and what did she endure before losing her way in the forest of Allemonde? The drama unfolds in a mysterious world of dark caves and sleeping waters: Pelléas, Golaud’s half-brother, and Mélisande fall in love, arousing t

Claude Debussy

Pelléas et Mélisande

Born into a modest family in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on August 22, 1862, Claude Debussy owed his education to his godfather, Achille Arosa, a banker and art collector who lived in Cannes, and to Madame Mauté de Fleureville, a pupil of Chopin and Verlaine's mother-in-law, who discovered his musical talents. In 1872, he entered the Paris Conservatory in the classes of Marmontel and Lavignac, and later attended the composition class of Emile Guiraud. He composed his first melodies in 1879 to texts by Alfred de Musset (Madrid, Ballade à la lune) and won the Prix de Rome in 1884 with his cantata L'Enfant prodigue. However, Debussy did not enjoy his stay at the Villa Médicis and returned to Paris sooner than expected, where he lived a bohemian life and had encounters that were to be decisive for the rest of his artistic life: Paul Dukas, Stéphane Mallarmé, Richard Wagner, whom he discovered during his first trip to Bayreuth in 1888, the music of the Far East, which he discovered a year later at the Universal Exhibition, and the score of Boris Godounov, which Saint-Saëns had brought back from Russia... It was in this intellectual effervescence that his first important works were born: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894), Trois chansons de Bilitis on poems by Pierre Louÿs (1897/1898), Nocturnes (1899). At the same time, under the name of Monsieur Croche, he published musical reviews that reveal his absolute anti-conformism and his merciless sense of humor. In 1902, the premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra-Comique made Debussy famous. From then on, he devoted himself entirely to composition: Estampes in 1903, La Mer in 1905, Images between 1905 and 1912, Children's Corner in 1908, Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, commissioned by Diaghilev from a text by D'Annunzio in 1910, and Jeux in 1912. His last masterpieces date from 1915: the Douze Études for piano and the suite En blanc et noir for two pianos. He died in Paris on March 25, 1918. Debussy's innovative aesthetic revolutionized the history of music, breaking with classical form while maintaining formal perfection.

A native of Normandy, Sabine Devieilhe studied cello and then voice at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Her repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary works. Shortly after graduating, she was invited to the Aix-en-Provence Festival to sing Serpetta (La finta giardiniera) and to Lyon for her debut as Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute). Since then, she has appeared on the world's major opera stages, including the Opéra National de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Vienna State Opera, the Zurich Opera, La Scala in Milan, London's Royal Opera House, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and at festivals such as Glyndebourne and Salzburg.She has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, Les Siècles and the Ensemble Pygmalion under the direction of Daniel Harding, Pablo Heras-Casado, Vladimir Jurowski, Klaus Mäkelä, Raphaël Pichon, Sir Simon Rattle, Francois-Xavier Roth and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In recital, Sabine Devieilhe performs regularly with the pianist Mathieu Pordoy.An exclusive artist for Erato/Warner Classics since 2012, her discography includes Mozart & the Weber Sisters with Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon, Mirages with Les Siècles, Chanson d'amour with Alexandre Tharaud, and Mozart - Strauss with Mathieu Pordoy (2024). In the 2024-2025 season, her roles include Sophie (Le Chevalier à la rose) in Milan and Vienna, and Zdenka (Arabella) in Vienna.At the Opéra national de Paris: The Magic Flute (Queen of the Night), 2014, 2017, 2021; Béatrice et Bénédict (Hero), 2017; Les Indes galantes (Hébé, Phani, Zima), 2019; Alcina (Morgana), 2021.

Devieihle.Sabine 1 (c) Anna Dabrowska

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) 

Canadian bass-baritone Gordon Bintner has amassed an extensive operatic repertoire during his six seasons as a member of the Frankfurt Opera Ensemble. A former member of the Opera Studio of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, he has returned regularly to that stage, most notably for his debut in the title role of Eugene Onegin and in the roles of Belcore (L'Élixir d'amour), Papageno (The Magic Flute), and Count Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro).In recent seasons he has appeared at London's Royal Opera House in the roles of Albert (Werther) and Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), at San Francisco Opera in the title role of Eugène Onéguine, and at the Opéra national de Lyon in Les Noces de Figaro. Last season he made his debut at Teatro Regio in Turin as Ruggiero (La Juive) and sang the title role in Don Giovanni with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. His concert repertoire includes Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Brahms' German Requiem, Mahler's Symphony No. 8, Handel's Messiah and Berlioz' L'Enfance du Christ. Gordon Bintner has appeared in recital at London's Wigmore Hall with pianist Kirill Gerstein and performed a program of Brahms and Schumann at Montreal's Bourgie Hall with pianist Michael McMahon.His discography includes A Quiet Place with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano (Decca Classics, 2018) and the Count in Schreker's Der ferne Klang (OehmsClassics, 2021). In the 2024-2025 season, he appears in the title role of Eugene Onegin at London's Royal Opera House, Count Almaviva at Lyric Opera Chicago and Opera Australia, and the title role of Don Giovanni with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto.At the Opéra national de Paris: A Quiet Place (Junior), 2022; Médée (Oronte), 2024; Così fan tutte (Guglielmo), 2024

Bintner.Gordon

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.

TEITGEN Jean © Studio Harcourt

A unanimous first prize winner at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, Sophie Koch has appeared on the world's major opera stages. She has appeared in Brussels, Barcelona, Zurich, London, Dresden, Vienna and New York's Metropolitan Opera, as well as at the Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence and Edinburgh Festivals. In recent seasons she has sung Fricka (L'Or du Rhin), the Composer (Ariane à Naxos) and Charlotte (Werther) at the Vienna State Opera, the Muse / Nicklausse (Les Contes d'Hoffmann) at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Kundry (Parsifal), Marie (Wozzeck), Sieglinde (La Walkyrie) and Isolde (Tristan et Isolde) at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, the Composer at La Scala and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Milan, Octavian (Le Chevalier à la rose) at the Semperoper in Dresden, Gertrude (Brett Dean's Hamlet), Lisa (La Passagère) and Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande) at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.An extensive discography testifies to her artistic work, for which she was awarded the Christel Goltz Prize by the Dresden Semperoper in 2001 and the title of Austrian Kammersängerin by the Vienna State Opera in 2016. In the 2024-2025 season, her roles include Hérodias (Salomé) at the Stuttgart Staatsoper, Madame de Croissy (Dialogues des carmélites) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Théâtre de Compiègne, and Mère (Louise) at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.Opéra national de Paris : Carmen (Mercédès), 1999 ; Don Giovanni (Zerlina), 2000 ; Le Barbier de Séville (Rosina), 2002 ; Ariane à Naxos (le Compositeur), 2003, 2010, 2015 ; L'Heure espagnole (Concepcion), 2004 ; L'Or du Rhin (Fricka), 2010, 2013 ; Werther (Charlotte), 2010 ; Tannhäuser (Venus), 2011. Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Giulietta), 2012 ; Le Crépuscule des dieux (Waltraute), 2013 ; Le Crépuscule des dieux (Deuxième Norn), 2013 ; La Walkyrie (Fricka), 2013 ; Alceste (le rôle-titre), 2013 ; Le Roi Arthus (Genièvre), 2015 ; La Damnation de Faust (Marguerite), 2015 ; Les Noces de Figaro (Marcellina), 2022.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;

Koch.Sophie 2 (c) Vincent Pontet

Member of the Troupe lyrique de l'Opéra national de ParisA former student of the Accademia del Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the International Opera Studio in Zurich, Amin Ahangaran began his training in 2016 in his native Tehran before continuing it in Austria, where he made his operatic debut in the role of Sarastro (The Magic Flute). He has appeared as a soloist in several productions and concerts in the Graz area. In 2018, he received a scholarship from the American Institute of Music Studies and Academia Belcanto and participated in numerous master classes. In the summer of 2021 he will return to Austria to receive another AIMS scholarship.In recent seasons he has sung roles such as the Usher (Rigoletto), the Inspector (Siberia), the footman (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale. He took part in Borgioli's Messa funebre a tre voci in Prato, as well as in numerous concerts at historical sites in Tuscany. At the Zurich Opera House he sang at the opening gala of the festival. He sang the roles of the Commissioner (La Traviata), Zaretsky and Captain Rotniy (Eugene Onegin) and the bass in Jakob Lenz. He has also understudied Sarastro, Colline (La Bohème), Fafner (Siegfried) and Timur (Turandot).In 2002 he won the Third Prize, the Audience Prize and the Prize of the Rapallo Opera Festival at the CLIP Competition in Portofino. He won third prize at the Riccardo Zandonai Competition in Riva del Garda and was a finalist at the Voci Verdiane Competition in Busetto. Recently he sang Rabonnier (La Rondine), the Doctor (Macbeth), the Mandarin (Turandot) and Dumas (Andrea Chénier) at the Zurich Opera and Don Basilio (The Barber of Seville) in Schaffhausen (Switzerland). He is a member of the Troupe lyrique de l'Opéra national de Paris for the 2024-2025 season.At the Opéra national de Paris: Faust (Wagner), 2024; Rigoletto (Il Conte di Ceprano), 2024; Pelléas
et Mélisande (Un médecin, un berger), 2025

Ahangaran.Amin 1 (c) Michele Monasta_1

Antonello Manacorda was born in Turin to a Franco-Italian family, studied in Amsterdam, and has lived in Berlin for many years. He was concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, of which he was a founding member alongside Claudio Abbado, before studying with the Finnish conductor Jorma Panula. Today, he performs at leading opera houses and conducts symphony orchestras of international renown. At the center of his work is the Kammerakademie Potsdam, an ensemble of which he has been artistic director since 2010, and with which he has produced a series of critically acclaimed recordings. In recent seasons, he has made debuts with the Dresden Staatskapelle, Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Cleveland Orchestra, and New York's Metropolitan Opera (The Marriage of Figaro). He also conducted a new production of Le Franc-tireur under the baton of Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He conducted Madame Butterfly at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He was invited back to the Vienna State Opera for The Marriage of Figaro and The Abduction from the Seraglio, and to the Royal Opera House in London for La Traviata. He has conducted Madame Butterfly at the Vienna State Opera, Le Franc-tireur at the Dresden Semperoper, and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique at the Baden-Baden Festival and in Barcelona.Last season he conducted Carmen at London's Royal Opera House, Le Trouvère at the Stuttgart Staatsoper and Orphée et Eurydice at the Spoleto Festival. In the 2024-2025 season, he will conduct Les Contes d'Hoffmann in London, Les Nozze di Figaro in Zurich, Le Franc-tireur at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and in Baden-Baden, and Maria Stuarda at the Salzburg Festival.At the Opéra national de Paris: The Magic Flute in 2022; Don Giovanni in 2023.

Wajdi Mouawad spent his childhood in Lebanon, his adolescence in France, his young adult years in Quebec, and now lives in France. A 1991 graduate of Canada's National School of Dramatic Art, he has adapted and directed contemporary and classic plays as well as his own. He was artistic director of the Théâtre de Quat'Sous in Montreal from 2000 to 2004 and of the Théâtre français du Centre national des arts in Ottawa from 2007 to 2012. With his creative companies Abé Carré Cé Carré in Quebec and Au Carré de l'Hypoténuse in France, he was an Associate Artist at the Avignon Festival in 2009, where he created the quartet Le Sang des Promesses with Littoral, Incendies, Forêts and Ciels. After reappropriating all of Sophocles' tragedies, including his solo Inflammation du verbe vivre, he worked on the Domestique creation cycle with Sœurs et Mère in the tradition of Seuls, which he still performs on tour. In 2016, he directed L'Enlèvement au sérail for the Opéra national de Lyon. Appointed director of La Colline - théâtre national in 2016 and renewed until 2027, he presents his creations there: Tous des oiseaux in 2017, Notre innocence in 2018, Fauves and Mort prématurée d'un chanteur populaire dans la force de l'âge in 2019, a new version of Littoral and Racine carrée du verbe être in 2022 and, most recently, Journée de noces chez les Cromagnons, which will premiere at Printemps des comédiens in June 2024 and at La Colline - théâtre national in spring 2025, before the premiere of Willy Protagoras enfermé dans les toilettes in 2026.As a writer, his second novel, Anima, published in 2012, has won several awards. He will soon direct Iphigénie en Tauride at the Opéra Comique. In 2024, at the invitation of the Collège de France, Wajdi Mouawad will hold the annual L'invention de l'Europe par les langues et les cultures chair, created in partnership with the French Ministry of Culture.At the Paris Opera: Œdipe, 2021

After studying Piano and Composition at the G.B. Martini Conservatoire in Bologna, Alessandro Di Stefano began his career as a concert pianist. Awarded a grant by the G. Verdi Conservatoire of Milan, he specialised in chamber music and operatic repertoire and took part in numerous recitals. Discovering an increasing interest in choral conducting, he continued his studies with Franco Monego at the Milan Conservatoire where he obtained first prize for conducting and choir training and took part in master classes with Aldo Ceccato and Piero Bellugi. In 2000, whilst continuing to pursue his career as a concert pianist and accompanist, he joined the Nice Opera company as vocal coach and was appointed assistant chorus master. He also worked as vocal coach for Traviata at the Antibes Festival and participated in a number of operatic productions for the Chorégies d’Orange. He conducted the Nice Opera Orchestra on numerous occasions, notably during the Nice Baroque Festival. In 2004, he joined the Paris Opera as Assistant Chorus master, since when he has worked alongside a number of prestigious conductors including Philippe Jordan, Daniel Oren, Evelino Pido, Renato Palumbo, Jiří Bělohlávek, Semyon Bychkov, Gustav Kuhn, Michail Jurowski and Kent Nagano. From 2007 to 2009, he was Chorus master and in 2008 accompanied the Opera Chorus to Japan on a tour featuring Tristan and Isolde and Ariane et Barbe-Bleue conducted by Semyon Bychkov and Lylvain Cambreling.Alessandro Di Stefano has now participated in over 50 Paris Opera productions and numerous radio broadcasts for France Musique and Radio Classique as well as various audiovisual recordings. He is currently Assistant Chorus master at the Paris Opera. In 2015, he was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the Minister of Culture Fleur Pellerin.

After studying at the Olivier de Serres School of Applied Arts, Emmanuel Clolus became assistant to set designer Louis Bercut. His meeting with the actor/director Stanislas Nordey at the Paris Conservatoire d'art dramatique marked the beginning of a long and lasting partnership that has seen them work together on numerous projects in both theater and opera. His stage designs include La Dispute by Marivaux, Les Justes by Camus, Se trouver by Pirandello, Tristesse animal noir by Anja Helling, Calderon, Pylade, Bête de style and Affabulazione by Pasolini, Par les villages by Peter Handke and Erich von Stroheim by Christophe Pellet. His opera credits include Les Nègres and La Métamorphose d'après Kafka by composer Michael Lévinas, Saint François d'Assise by Messiaen, Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy, Melancholia by Georg Friedrich Haas, Lohengrin by Wagner, Lucia de Lammermoor by Donizetti and L'Orfeo by Monteverdi. He has also worked with directors Frédéric Fisbach, Arnaud Meunier and Blandine Savetier. For Éric Lacascade, he designed Gorky's Les Estivants, Chekhov's Oncle Vania, Molière's Tartuffe, Éric Lacascade's Constellation and Gorky's Les Bas-fonds, as well as Spontini's La Vestale. With director Christine Letailleur, he designed the sets for Eric Stoller's Hinkemann, Choderlos de Laclos' Les Liaisons dangereuses and Brecht's Baal.He worked with director Marc Paquien on Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne's opera Phèdre. Since 2006, he has worked with Wajdi Mouawad, designing most of his sets.At the Opéra national de Paris: Saint François d'Assise, 2004; Melancholia, 2008; Œdipe, 2021; Le Soulier de Satin, 2021.

After obtaining a DEUG in Art History, Emmanuelle Thomas opted for a professional course in "Entertainment Clothing", followed by training as a costume designer in Lyon. She has worked with many directors, including Charlie Brozzoni, André Engel, Joël Pommerat and Jean-François Sivadier. She also designed costumes for Franck Andrieux for Haute Surveillance in 2009, Pierre Foviau for Macbeth ou la comédie des sorcières in 2012, and Sara Llorca for Psychose 4.48 in 2015. She joined Wajdi Mouawad's team in 2006 for Forêts, then designed the costumes for Sœurs in 2014, Des Mourants in 2015 and L'Enlèvement au sérail in 2016. In 2016, she joined Guillaume Séverac-Schmitz's team to create the costumes for Richard II, followed by La Duchesse d'Amalfi in 2018 and Derniers remords avant l'oubli in 2020. In 2017, she created the costumes for Tous des oiseaux, Fauves and Mort prématurée d'un chanteur dans la force de l'âge in 2019. That same year, she worked with Thibault Perrenoud on Hamlet. In September 2020, she takes part in the creation of Exils intérieurs at the Théâtre de la Ville. In February 2021, she designs the costumes for Les Imprudents, directed by Isabelle Lafon. In November 2021, she designs the costumes for Mère, written and directed by Wajdi Mouawad.In 2022, she designs and creates the costumes for Pour que les vents se lèvent, directed by Catherine Marnas and Nuno Cardoso, and for Racine carré du verbe Être by Wajdi Mouawad. In 2023, she created the costumes for Richard III, directed by Guillaume Séverac-Schmitz, M Comme Médée, directed by Astrid Bayiha, and Kaldun, written and directed by Abdelwahab Sesaf. In 2024, she was engaged for various projects: Näcken for Spat Sonore &amp; Sölta Sälta (Elsa Birgé), Macbeth directed by David Gauchard, La Trilogie new yorkaise adapted from the book by Paul Auster directed by Igor Mendjisky.At the Opéra national de Paris: Œdipe, 2021

After a CAP in hairdressing and an apprenticeship at a make-up school, Cécile Kretschmar created make-up, wigs, masks and prostheses for numerous theater and opera productions with directors such as Jacques Lassalle, Jorge Lavelli, Didier Bezace, Luc Bondy and Bruno Boeglin, Jean-François Sivadier, Jaques Vincey, Jean-Yves Ruf, Peter Stein, Macha Makeïeff, Ludovic Lagarde, Jean Bellorini, Marcial di Fonzo Bo and Élise Vigier, Pierre Maillet, Yasmina Reza, Wajdi Mouawad, Alain Françon, Phia Ménard, Pauline Sales, Emmanuel Daumas, Andrés Lima, the Marthe collective and Laure Werckmann.In 2024, she created the hair and make-up for Zazie dans le métro, directed by Zabou Breitman at the Maison de la Culture in Amiens. She worked with Macha Makeïeff on Dom Juan at the Théâtre National Populaire in Villeurbanne, designed and produced masks, wigs and make-up for the opera Olympiades directed by Emmanuel Daumas at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and took part in the creation of Sœurs Hilton directed by Christian Hecq and Valérie Lesort at the Théâtre des Célestins in Lyon.She continued her collaboration with Pauline Sales for Les Deux Déesses in Le Mans and with Andrés Lima for Shock 1936 in Madrid. She works with young companies, including the Marthe collective for the creation of Vaisseau Famille at the MC2 in Grenoble and the Lucie Warrant company for Croire aux fauves at the TJP Centre dramatique national in Strasbourg.For the cinema, Cécile Kretschmar designed and made the masks for Albert Dupontel's Au revoir là-haut and for Aurélie Reinhorn's short film Son altesse protocole, and participated in the make-up and hair design for Noémie Lvovsky's La Grande Magie. In 2024, she participated in Amos Gitaï's film Why War, which was shown at the Venice Biennale. Since 2017, she has collaborated with Wajdi Mouawad, most recently on Journée de noces chez les Cromagnons.At the Opéra national de Paris: Œdipe, 2021

Éric Champoux met Wajdi Mouawad at the National Theater School of Canada. He designed the lighting for almost all of his productions, including Incendies, Forêts, Seuls, Temps, Des Femmes, Des Héros, Sœurs, Le Dernier jour de sa vie, Tous des oiseaux, Mort prématurée d'un chanteur populaire dans la force de l'âge and Racine carré du verbe Être, followed by L'Enlèvement au sérail at the Opéra national de Lyon. With a background in Montreal theater, he was soon invited to work in the circus and opera worlds. He has collaborated with the Opéra de Montréal on Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking and Samson et Dalila, both directed by Alain Gauthier, Falstaff by David Gately, Aida by François Racine, Romeo and Juliet created by Tom Diamond, Written on Skin by George Benjamin and, most recently, La Reine-Garçon by Michel-Marc Bouchard.He also collaborates regularly with the collective Les 7 doigts de la main, notably on Le Murmure du Coquelicot, Cuisines &amp; Confessions, Passagers, The Princess of Circus, Prime Time, The Last Chapter, commissioned by the Sheikh of Sharja in the United Arab Emirates, and the musical tribute to the Cowboys Fringuants Pub Royal. For Cirque du Soleil, he created the lighting for the Big Top (2009) and Arena (2016) versions of OVO, as well as for Allavita! commissioned for the Milan World Expo (2015).He is also lending his lights to Cirque du Soleil's first two ice shows: Crystal (2017) and Axel (2019). Also for Cirque du Soleil, he created the lighting for Juste Une P'Tite Nuite (a tribute to the group Les Colocs) and Joyeux Calvaire (a tribute to the group Les Cowboys Fringants), The Cirque (a tribute to the group RBO) at the Amphithéâtre Cogeco in Trois-Rivières, Amora on the island of Malta, Vizion in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Festa in Andorra. A man of many facets, he is also a painter and photographer. In his work, the media intersect, overlap and merge.At the Opéra national de Paris: Œdipe, 2021

A graduate in art history from the École du Louvre in Paris and in cinema from Concordia University in Montreal, Stéphanie Jasmin has been co-artistic director of the creative company UBU with director Denis Marleau since 2002. She is responsible for the video design of about 35 shows and about twenty stage sets. In particular, she has worked with him on the exploration of the video character, starting with the technological phantasmagoria Les Aveugles, created at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in 2002. Other projects include Thomas Bernhard's Une fête pour Boris at the Festival d'Avignon in 2009, Seneca's Agamemnon at the Comédie-Française, and the animated video puppets for Jean-Paul Gaultier's La Planète mode exhibition in 2011.In the field of opera, she co-directed with Denis Marleau and produced the video for Bartók's operas Barbe-Bleue at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2007, John Rea's Le Petit Livre des Ravalet in Montreal in 2016, and Dominique Pauwels' L'Autre Hiver in Mons in 2015. She wrote and directed Ombres in 2005, Les Marguerite(s) in 2018 and Les Dix Commandements de Dorothy Dix at La Colline - théâtre national in 2022. In the same year, she was the dramaturge for Wajdi Mouawad's Racine carrée du verbe être, then designed the video for Journée de noces chez les Cromagnons for him in 2024.In the spring of 2024, she created the set and video design for Tigre Bleu de l'Euphrate and Terrasses by Laurent Gaudé, presented at La Colline - théâtre national, and produced Projeter Riopelle, an urban video in Montreal. She teaches regularly at the Université du Québec à Montréal and at the National Theatre School of Canada. Stéphanie Jasmin is the 2018 recipient of the Siminovitch Prize for her video work and set design.Debut at the Opéra national de Paris

With a background in theater and literature, Charlotte Farcet is a playwright and actress. She first collaborated with Jacques Nichet and then, committed to writing and creation, began to work with playwrights and directors, collaborating with Frédéric Fisbach, Alexandra Badea, Norah Krief, Alima Hamel and Aurélien Bory, Igor Mendjisky, Anaïs Allais, Claire Bardainne and Adrien Mondot.Since 2008, she has worked closely with Wajdi Mouawad on his productions Seuls, Ciels, Temps, Tous des oiseaux, Mère and Journée de noces chez les Cromagnons, and has performed in two parts of his Sophocles cycle, Antigone and Les Larmes d'Œdipe. She is one of the guides for La Parole Nochère, a poetic experiment offered at the Théâtre National de la Colline between July 2020 and June 2022, and one of the performers in Proches, a play written and directed by Laurent Mauvignier in 2023.At the request of Léméac / Actes Sud, she wrote the afterword to the quartet's works Le Sang des Promesses, Littoral, Incendies, Forêts, Ciels, after reworking the Recueil général des dialogues de Tabarin et son Maître for Belles Lettres.At the Opéra national de Paris: Œdipe, 2021

Creatives

Cast

Extras

Pelléas et Mélisandre, the true/false story

Libretto

Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy, from 28 February to 27 March 2025 at the Opéra Bastille

Show more

The characters

The acts

Creatives

Pelléas et Mélisandre, the true/false story

Libretto

Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy, from 28 February to 27 March 2025 at the Opéra Bastille