Prologue

Act I

Act II

Act III

Couv_Simon_Boccanegra_780x90617

Libretto

simon boccanegra tezier

Interview with Baryton Ludovic Tézier

The ambiguities of Verdi’s theatre are particularly clear in his baritone roles, among which is that of Boccanegra, corsair turned doge of Genoa and the troubled observer of the conflicts that tore apart 14th century landowners and peasants.An eminently political opera in which power struggles are interwoven with family conflicts, Simon Boccanegra echoes the life of its composer – the man who championed the cause of Italian unification and overcame the loss of his wife and children.Calixto Bieito, that most Shakespearean of opera directors, brings humanism and truth to a work haunted by gleaming images of the sea. The Paris Opera Orchestra and ChorusA co-production of the Paris Opera and François Roussillon et Associés With the participation of France Télévisions, the support of the Orange Foundation, patron of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts, and with the assistance of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image animée.Director: François Roussillon © Opéra national de Paris – François Roussillon et Associés - 2018Picture: © Agathe Poupeney / OnP

<ul><li>Simon Boccanegra: Corsair in the service of the Republic of Genoa, elected first Doge of Genova</li><li>Jacopo Fiesco: Genoese noble in exile, also known as Andrea</li><li>Maria Boccanegra: Simon Boccanegra’s daughter, brought up under the name of Amelia Grimaldi</li><li>Gabriele Adorno: Genoese gentleman, in love with Amelia</li><li>Paolo Albiani: Courtier and Simon’s right-hand man</li><li>Pietro: Man of the people, Paolo’s accomplice</li></ul>

Simon Boccanegra

fr / en

The ambiguities of Verdi’s theatre are particularly clear in his baritone roles, among which is that of Boccanegra, corsair turned doge of Genoa and the troubled observer of the conflicts that tore apart 14th century landowners and peasants. An emine

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi was born in 1813 into a modest but relatively well-to-do family in the hamlet of Le Roncole, near Busseto. He received his first musical training from the village organist. In 1824, he became the organist at the church in Busseto. After following music lessons with the organist and composer Ferdinando Provesi, he was noticed by Antonio Barezzi, a spirits merchant and music aficionado who also founded the Filarmonici (Societa filarmonica), the town’s amateur orchestra. Barezzi would become Verdi’s patron and sponsor and the composer would ultimately marry Barezzi’s daughter Margherita in 1836. A stipend enabled him to continue his studies in Milan where he took private lessons with Vincenzo Lavigna, a teacher at La Scala, and a friend of Rossini. On the recommendations of the impresario Bartolomeo Merelli, his first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio was performed at La Scala in Milan. For a short while following the death of his two children and then his wife Margherita, and after the relative fiasco that befell his second opera, Un giorno di regno, Verdi considered abandoning music altogether. However, he started composing again when Merelli offered him the libretto for Nabucco. That opera was a huge success at its premiere at La Scala on March 9, 1842 and it did not take long before all of Italy was singing Va pensiero, the anthem in which the chorus of slaves lament their lost freedom. From then on, Verdi became the bard of Italian unification. Most of the works that followed would be operas with patriotic undertones (I Lombardi alla prima crocciata, Ernani, Giovanna d’Arco, Attila, La Battaglia di Legnano…). In 1847, Verdi left for London for the world premiere of I Masnadieri, then settled in Paris where he met up with Giuseppina Strepponi, who would create the role of Abigaille. They would never be separated again. Verdi purchased the property at Sant’Agata, near Busseto and openly enlisted in the struggle for the liberation of Italy, which was then occupied by the Austrians. After 1850, Verdi was unrivalled in Italy. In particular, his popular trilogy, Rigoletto – Il Trovatore – La Traviata dates from this period.Les Vêpres siciliennes (Paris, 1855), Simon Boccanegra (La Fenice in Venice, 1857), Un ballo in maschera (Rome, 1859), La Forza del destino (Saint Petersburg, 1862), Don Carlos (Paris, 1867), Aida (Cairo, 1871), the Messa di Requiem (Milan, 1874), Otello (Milan, 1887), and Falstaff (Milan, 1893) would follow. In 1861, he was elected deputy of Busseto. He passed away in Milan on January 27, 1901. With no heir at the time of his death, Verdi bequeathed his copyrights to the retirement home for aging musicians that he had founded in Milan.

After his beginning in Lucerne and Lyon, mostly in the Mozart and Bel Canto repertoires, Ludovic Tézier has been invited to perform on the greatest international stages. He sang the major roles of the baritone repertoire, under the baton of conductors such as&nbsp;Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel and Philippe Jordan.He has performed the role of Amonasro (Aida) at the Verona Arena and the Royal Opera House in London, the title role in&nbsp;Rigoletto at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, the Vienna Staatsoper and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the title role of&nbsp;Simon Boccanegra in Zurich, the roles of Renato (Un ballo in maschera) at La Scala in Milan, Barnaba (La Gioconda) and Carlo Gerard (Andrea Chénier) at the Sydney Opera House, Wolfram (Tannhäuser) in Munich and Vienna, Baron Scarpia (Tosca) at the Salzburg Festival, in London and Berlin, Amfortas (Parsifal) and Athanäel (Thaïs) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.



At the Paris Opera: La Bohème (Schaunard), 1999 ; La Bohème (Marcello), 2001, 2009, 2014 ; Le Nozze di Figaro (Count Almaviva), 2003, 2010 ; The Queen of Spades (Prince Eletski), 2005, 2012 ; Lucia di Lammermoor (Enrico Ashton), 2006, 2013 ; Un ballo in maschera (Renato), 2007, 2009 ; Werther (title-role), 2009 ; Werther (Albert), 2010 ; Don Carlo (Rodrigo, Marquis de Posa), 2010 ; Eugen Onegin (title-role), 2010 ; Carmen (Escamillo), 2012 ; La Traviata (Giorgio Germont), 2014, 2018, 2019, 2024 ; Tosca (Baron Scarpia), 2014, 2021 ; Il Trovatore (Count di Luna), 2016 ; Rigoletto (title-role), 2016, 2021 ; Don Carlos (Rodriguez), 2017 ; Simon Boccanegra (title-role), 2018 ; Manon (Lescaut), 2020 ; Aida (Amonasro), 2021 ; La Forza del destino (Don Carlo di Vargas), 2022

Tézier.Ludovic (c) 

Maria Agresta began her career in 2007. After winning several competitions, she achieved her first major public and critical success in 2011 in I Vespri siciliani at Turin’s Teatro Regio, under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda. Soon thereafter, she was invited all over the world to sing numerous parts including the title role in Norma in Tel Aviv, Mimi in La Bohème at the Verona Arena, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Naples’ Teatro San Carlo, Turin’s Teatro Regio and the Torre del Lago Puccini Festival, Gemma di Vergy at Bergamo’s Teatro Donizetti, Elvira (Don Giovanni), Mimi (La Bohème), and Leonora (Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio) at Milan’s La Scala. She has also appeared in La Traviata at the Berlin Staatsoper, Il Trovatore at Valencia’s Teatro Bellas Artes with Zubin Mehta conducting, and Carmen (Micaela) in Masada. She earned particular praise for her performance in a concert version of Verdi's Giovanna d’Arco at the Musikverein in Graz. In 2014, she was awarded Italy’s Franco Abbiati Music Critics Prize. She also sang the role of Amelia in Simon Boccanegra at the Rome Opera under Riccardo Muti and at the Dresden Semperoper under Christian Thielemann and then played Amalia in I Masnadieri and Mimi at La Fenice in Venice. She has performed in Verdi’s Requiem Mass at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples with Nicola Luisotti and at the Berlin Staatsoper with Daniel Barenboim. She also appeared in Otello (Desdemona) in Valencia, with Zubin Mehta conducting, and in Spontini’s La Vestale at Dresden’s Semperoper. More recently, she appeared in La Traviata in Munich, Berlin and the Verona Arena, Otello in Zurich, Genova and London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden, I Puritani (Elvira), La Bohème and Carmen (Micaela) at the Paris Opera, Simon Boccanegra in Dresden with Christian Thielemann, I due Foscari (Lucrezia Contarini) with Antonio Pappano conducting and Il Trovatore (Leonora) at London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Norma in Zurich, Turin, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and the Teatro Real in Madrid, Il Trovatore, and Turandot (Liu) under the baton of Riccardo Chailly and Verdi’s Requiem (with Zubin Mehta) at Milan’s La Scala. She also sang the roles of Micaela, Mimi, Liu and Leonora (Il Trovatore) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. During the 2017-2018 season, she will be singing the role of Alice Ford (Falstaff) at the Berlin Staatsoper and the title role in Luisa Miller at the Zurich Opera.

Maria Agresta

Finnish bass, Mika Kares, studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and was a member of the Karlsruhe Badisches Staatstheater from 2005 to 2010. He regularly performs in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, London, Madrid, Munich, Rome, Zurich, Amsterdam, Dresden and Chicago and has taken part in various festivals, including those of Bayreuth, Ruhrtriennale, Salzburg, Bregenz and Savonlinna.His operatic repertoire comprises the roles of Hagen (Götterdämmerung), Hunding (Die Walküre), Fafner (Siegfried), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Hermann (Tannhäuser), King Marke (Tristan und Isolde), Heinrich der Vogler (Lohengrin), the Commander (Don Giovanni), Jacopo Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Zaccaria (Nabucco), King René (Iolanta), Ivan (The Khovantchina) and Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle) - a part he also recorded for BIS in 2021 and for which he was nominated at the Grammy Awards.His recordings include Boris Godunov with the Goteborg Symphony Orchestra and Kent Nagano (BIS, 2019). Mika Kares also appears on the concert platform, in a repertoire including, among other things, Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s Symphony n°9 and Missa Solemnis, Verdi’s Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony n°8 and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, as well as Chostakovitch’s Symphonies n°13 and 14.During the 2023/24 season he appears as Daland (Der Flying Dutchman) at the Lyric Opera Chicago, Jacopo Fiesco at the Bastille Opera, and in two new productions of the at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden de Berlin: Rusalka (Vodník) and The Khovantchina (Ivan). He also returns to the Bayreuth Festival to perform the role of Hagen, and to the Savonlinna Festival, where he sings the roles of Zaccaria and the Commander.At the Paris Opera: Il Trovatore (Ferrando), 2018; Simon Boccanegra (Jacopo Fiesco), 2018;&nbsp;Turandot (Timur), 2023

Kares.Mika 4 (c) MIKA-fotografie-Berlin

Born in Porto Torres, Sardinia, Francesco Demuro studied at the Sassari Conservatory, then in the Cagliari Conservatory, where he studied with soprano Elisabetta Scanu. His debut in Parma in Luisa Miller in 2007 earned him numerous engagements in some of the most renowned theatres, such as the Royal Opera House (London), the Metropolitan Opera (New York), the Paris Opera, La Scala (Milan), the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin), the Rome, San Francisco and Seattle Opera houses, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Teatro Real (Madrid), La Fenice (Venice), the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), the Teatro di San Carlo (Naples), the Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich), the Arena di Verona, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. His repertoire includes the leading roles in La Traviata, Rigoletto, La Bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, Falstaff, L’elisir d’amore, Les Pêcheurs de perles, Roberto Devereux, Maria Stuarda, I Puritani, Roméo et Juliette, Faust, Don Pasquale, Così fan tutte, Werther, Linda di Chamounix, La sonnambula. He performed concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Teatro alla Scala and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia orchestras, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Huston Symphonic Orchestra. His concert repertoire
features, among other works, Verdi’s Requiem,
Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Little solemn Mass, and Beethoven’s Symphony n°9.In the 2022/23 season, he is performing at the Teatro Real in Madrid (La sonnambula), the Vienna Staatsoper (L’elisir d’amore), the Greek National Opera (Werther), the Hamburg Staatsoper (La Traviata), and Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin (Rigoletto).At the Paris Opera: La Traviata (Alfredo Germont), 2014, 2016 ; Der Rosenkavalier (Ein Sänger), 2016 ; Rigoletto (the Duke of Mantua), 2016 ; Falstaff (Fenton), 2017 ; Simon Boccanegra (Gabriele Adorno), 2018 ; I Puritani (Lord Arturo Talbot), 2019 ; I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Tebaldo), 2022

Demuro Francesco

Abbiati Award 2016 winner, Nicola Alaimo performs on the greatest operatic international venues (Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala Milan, Teatro Regio Turin, Salzburg Festival, La Monnaie Brussels, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Paris Opera, Rome Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro Real Madrid, Deutsche Oper Berlin) and makes regular guest appearances at the Festival Rossini Pesaro. There he performed the title roles in William Tell, a role he also sang in Paris, Monte-Carlo, Amsterdam, Munich, Brussels and at the Chorégies d'Orange. Recent engagements include tours for La Cenerentola, Il turco in Italia and a Rossini Gala, Simon Boccanegra (title-role) in Antwerp, Adriana Lecouvreur in Palermo, La Forza del destino at Metropolitan Opera New York, Il turco in Italia, La Bohème and Adriana Lecouvreur in Bologna, Il Trovatore in Monte-Carlo, Falstaff in Budapest, Falstaff, La Cena delle Beffe, Count Ory, Il Pirata at La Scala Milan, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria in Madrid. He performed at the Arena di Verona in The Barber of Seville then in Simon Boccanegra at the Paris opera, Falstaff and Il Trovatore in Monte-Carlo, La Cenerentola at La Scala Milan and in Amsterdam, Rigoletto in Marseille, Adriana Lecouvreur and The Barber of Seville in Salzburg, La Traviata in Madrid, Adriana Lecouvreur, La Forza del destino, Falstaff and The Barber of Seville in Florence, L’elisir d’amore in Naples, La Cenerentola in Madrid and Bologna, L'Italiana in Algeri in Zurich. Recently, he toured and recorded an album dedicated to Rossini’s arias, Largo al Factotum, released by Bongiovanni. Future engagements include Falstaff in Venice and Tokyo, The Barber of Seville in Monte-Carlo,L'Italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola in Zurich, Nabucco and Roberto Devereux in Genèeva, Simon Boccanegra in Florence, I Due Foscari in Chicago, La Cenerentola and Adriana Lecouvreur in Toulouse, William Tell in Liège.

Alaimo

Trained at the Paris Opera Academy Born in Russia, Mikhail Timoshenko began his musical and theatrical training in Mednogorsk, then at the Franz Liszt University in Weimar and the Hans Eisler in Berlin. From 2015 to 2017, he was a member of the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris, where he sang Pluton (L'Orfeo), Spencer Coyle (Owen Wingrave) and Silvano (Un bal masqué). He won the Cercle Carpeaux prize and the AROP prize in 2016, and the Maria Callas International Grand Prix in Greece in 2017. In 2018, in duo with pianist Elitsa Desseva, he won First Prize at the Chamber Music Competition in Graz, First Prize at the Hugo Wolf Academy Competition in Stuttgart, Second Prize and Audience Prize at the Schubert-Wettbewerb Competition in Dortmund and First Prize at the Wigmore Hall / Independent Opera Song Competition in London. He took part in the world premiere of Alexandre Desplat's chamber opera En Silence in Paris, sang Masetto (Don Giovanni) in Düsseldorf, Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) in Nancy, Ottokar (Le Franc-tireur) at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Mozart's Requiem in Antwerp, Fauré's Requiem in Baden Baden, Albert (Werther) in Lausanne and Tours, Mozart's Mass in C minor at the Salzburg Festival and in Antwerp, Marcello (La Bohème) in Toulouse, Papageno (The Magic Flute) in Montpellier, Franck Martin's Golgotha in Linz, Leporello (Don Giovanni) at the Glyndebourne Festival. Recent roles include Prosdocimo (The Turk in Italy) in Lausanne, Shchelkalov (Boris Godunov) in Toulouse and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Marcello at London's Royal Opera House and Hadjar (Le Tribut de Zamora) in Saint-Étienne. Other projects include Belcore (L'Élixir d'amour) in Nancy and Taddeo (L'Italienne à Alger) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.À l'Opéra national de Paris : Rigoletto (Il Conte di Ceprano), 2017 ; Don Carlos (Député flamand), 2017 ; Wozzeck (Erster Handwerksbursch), 2017, 2022 ; Un bal masqué (Silvano), 2018 ; Boris Godounov (Mitioukha), 2018 ; Simon Boccanegra (Pietro), 2018 ; Don Giovanni (Masetto), 2019, 2022

Timoshenko.Mikhail

Member of the Paris Opera ChorusCyrille Lovighi was born in 1975 in Sartène (southern Corsica). He started out his training at Corsica’s Centre d’art polyphonique and in 1995 joined the men’s chorus of Sartène, led by Jean-Paul Poletti. That same year, he appeared at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Jean-Paul Poletti’s Cantata Corsica.He then went on to record a number of CDs (Polyphonies Franciscaines in 1996 on the Audivis label; Fiori di Memoria in 1998, also on the Audivis label; Messa Sulenna in 2000 for Jade Music; Cantata Corsica in 2000 conducted by Cibrian Para with Romania’s Sibiu Philharmonic Orchestra for Naïve; and Goyescas de Granados in 2004 on the Night & Day label).Numerous concerts as a soloist would follow, including Jean-Paul Poletti’s Messa Sulenna with the Sartène Men’s Chorus and the Lyon Opera Orchestra under the direction of John Alldis in March 2001, then Gounod’s Mass and Bizet’s Te Deum in 2003.He was tutored by Yves Sotin at the Regional Conservatory in Angers (where he was unanimously awarded the Gold Medal in 2002) and then in the advanced class at the Regional Conservatory of Saint Maur-des-Fossés (where he was unanimously awarded the Gold Medal in 2004). In 2004, at the Théâtre 13 in Paris, he sang in the opera version of Granados’ Goyescas, an ambitious blend of theatre and opera which would also be presented at the Avignon Festival in July 2004, and at Planete Andalucia in 2005 along with an original creation entitled Flamen Corse which he himself co-authored.In June 2005, he became a full-time member of the Paris Opera Chorus. At the Paris Opera: Il Trovatore (un messo), 2016 ; The Tales of Hoffmann (Nathanaël), 2016, 2023 ; Lohengrin (ein brabantische edel), 2017 ; Simon Boccanegra (un capitano dei balestrieri), 2018 ; Cendrillon (le Doyen de la Faculté), 2022

cyrille lovighi nb

Fabio Luisi was born in Genoa and in 2014 was awarded the “Grifo d’Oro” the highest distinction given by that municipality for his contribution to the cultural heritage of his native city. He has been the musical Director of the Zurich Opera since September 2012, principal conductor of New York’s Metropolitan Opera since September 2011 and as from the start of the 2017-2018 season, principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DNSO). He will also be the musical director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino beginning in 2018. As musical director of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra from 2005 to 2013, he was awarded the Golden Bruckner Medal and the Golden Bruckner Ring. Over the last few seasons, he has conducted Wozzeck, I Puritani, Falstaff, Tosca, and Lohengrin at the Zurich Opera, Cavalleria rusticana, David McVicar's production of Pagliacci, Manon Lescaut with Roberto Alagna and Kristine Opolais, The Marriage of Figaro, and William Tell at the Metropolitan Opera, and Lear at the Paris Opera. He has also made guest appearances at the Festival della Valle d’Itria - Martina Franca and at Milan’s La Scala. He conducted Siegfried and The Twilight of the Gods for the recording of the Ring Cycle by Deutsche Grammophon (Best Opera Recording 2012) at the Metropolitan Opera in a production by Robert Lepage and also won a Grammy Award for it in 2013. His extensive discography includes, among others, the entirety of symphonies and the oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln by the Austrian composer Franz Schmidt, Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony (with the Dresden Staatskapelle) and the original version of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony (Philharmonia Zurich). This season, he will be conducting Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the DNSO, Henze’s Violin Concerto N° 2 with Julia Fischer, Beethoven’s Fifth and Seventh Symphonies, and Franz Schmidt’s oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln. Fabio Luisi is also a composer: his Saint Bonaventure Mass premiered last September in New York.Projects: From the House of the Dead and La Forza del destino in Zurich, La Favorite, Cardillac,

Born in Miranda de Ebro (Burgos), Calixto Bieito has been director of Barcelona's Teatre Romea, the Festival International des Arts de Castilla y Léon and Barcelona International Teatre (BIT). From 2013 to 2015, he was artist-in-residence at the Théâtre de Bâle. Since 2017, he has been artistic director of Bilbao's Teatro Arriaga. Since the early 2000s, he has devoted himself to directing opera, while continuing to work for the theater.Carmen at the Peralada Festival, Shakespeare's Macbeth at the Salzburg Festival, Hamlet at the Edinburgh Festival, Don Giovanni in Hanover and The Abduction from the Seraglio at Berlin's Komische Oper have established his reputation as one of the most controversial yet exciting directors of his generation.Previous productions include Zimmermann's Les Soldats (Zurich, Berlin, Madrid), Hèctor Parra's Wilde at the Schwetzingen Festival, Tannhäuser at the Flanders and Venice Operas, The Fairy Queen in Stuttgart, La Juive at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, La Forza del destino at English National Opera, Xenakis' Oresteia in Basel, Les Troyens in Nuremberg, Moses und Aaron and Le Grand Macabre at the Semperoper Dresden, Elias at Theater an der Wien, Hèctor Parra's Les Bienveillantes at the Flanders Opera, José María Usandizaga's Mendi Mendiyan at Teatro Arriaga.In recent seasons, he has directed Carmen and Tristan und Isolde in Vienna, Lohengrin at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, St John's Passion at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Rudi Stephan's Die ersten Menschen in Amsterdam, La Guerre et la Paix in Geneva, Erwin Schulhoff's Kátia Kabanová and Flammen in Prague, Joachim Raff's Samson in Weimar, Gustav Mahler's Von der Liebe Tod at the Vienna Staatsoper, Eliogabalo at the Zurich Opera and Giulio Cesare in Egitto in Amsterdam.This season, he will be directing Mahomet II in Naples, Hèctor Parra's Orgia in Barcelona and Kurt Weill's Der Silbersee in Mannheim.At the Paris Opera: Lear, 2016; Carmen, 2017; Simon Boccanegra, 2018; The Exterminating Angel (2024)

Born in Mainz, Germany, Ingo Krügler studied costume and design in Berlin and London (Lette-Verein Berlin, College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London). He lives in Vienna and works internationally. After working for Jean-Paul Gaultier and John Galliano in Paris, he was assistant on several productions by Michael Haneke, Robert Carsen, David Alden, David Pountney, Thomas Langhoff, Gottfried Pilz and Stefan Herheim, in Vienna, Paris, Munich and at the Salzburg Festival.Since Jenůfa in Stuttgart in 2008, he has been collaborating with Calixto Bieito: Elias in Lyon and at Theater an der Wien, Turandot in Toulouse, La Guerre et la Paix and Lady Macbeth of Mzensk in Geneva, Lulu, De la maison des morts, Orestie at Théâtre de Bâle, Die Soldaten, The Fiery Angel&nbsp;and L'incoronazione di Poppea in Zurich, Otello&nbsp;in Basel and Hamburg, Armida, Der Freischütz,&nbsp;Bluebeard's Castle, Gianni Schicchi, Dialogues des carmélites, Die Gezeichneten at Berlin's Komische Oper, Lohengrin and Aida at Berlin's Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Flanders Opera and in Graz, Les Contes d'Hoffmann in Oslo, Tannhäuser and Lady Mabcbeth of Mzensk in Antwerp, Turandot and Les Troyens in Nuremberg, La Forza del destino at the English National Opera, Fidelio, Boris Godunov and La Juive at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Ibsen's Brand in Oslo and at the Bergen Festival, St John's Passion in Bilbao and at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Moses und Aron and Le Grand Macabre in Dresden, Hèctor Parra's Les Bienveillantes at the Flanders Opera,&nbsp;as well as several productions at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu and Madrid's Teatro Real and, this season, Mahomet II at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples.He has also worked with Tatjana Gürbaca in Novosibirsk and Elisabeth Stöppler (Werther, Faust and Médée), Tobias Kratzer (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny), Matthew Wild (Don Giovanni and La Bohème in Bern and at the Cape Town Opera), Stefan Märki and Lydia Steyer (Elektra).At the Paris Opera: Lear, 2016; Simon Boccanegra, 2018; The Exterminating Angel (2024)

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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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).&nbsp;These last seasons, he created the lighting for&nbsp;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,&nbsp;The Magic flute, Peter Grimes, Hanjo and Sémélé at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Manon, Falstaff and Fidelio at the&nbsp;Hamburg Staatsoper,&nbsp;Don Quichotte&nbsp;and&nbsp;Samson et Dalila at the Mariinsky Theatre, Der fliegende Holländer at the Munich Opera Festival, Rigoletto,&nbsp;Irrelohe&nbsp;and Bluthaus at the Lyon Opera, Tristan und Isolde at the Vienna State Opera, Tannhäuser&nbsp;at the Leipzig Opera,&nbsp;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, 2021

Born in Lucerne, Sarah Derendinger studied video art and film in Berne, Amsterdam, Basel and Warsaw. She works as an independent film and television director, author and video artist.Her films have been shown at numerous international festivals. Her documentary Familientreffen won the Swiss Film Prize at the 2009 Vision du Réel festival in Nyon. Since 1993, she has regularly produced documentaries, live action and fiction series for Swiss television SRF, and for seven years produced new series formats as a programme developer.Sarah Derendinger also presents her video installations in exhibitions, public spaces, stages and festivals, for example at the Theatertreffen in Berlin, the Schauspielhaus in Zurich, the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, the Théâtre de Bâle, Nuremberg Staatsoper, Mannheim Staatstheater, Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Belfast Opera House, English National Opera, Komische Oper Berlin, Teatro Real Madrid, Semperoper Dresden, La Monnaie in Brussels... Sarah Derendinger has been working regularly with Calixto Bieito since 2013, and has also created video installations on stage for numerous directors and composers, including Jossi Wieler, Jürgen Flimm, Heiner Goebbels, Barbora Horáková Joly and Andrea Moses.In 2017, she was awarded the Critics' Prize for Best Spanish Video Design for the production Obabakoak, which premiered in Bilbao. In 2021, she will direct Arne Nordheim's video opera Tempest at the Bergen Festival, and in 2023 she will stage The Rape of Lucretia as an opera director at the Lucerne Theatre.At the Paris Opera: Lear, 2016; Simon Boccanegra, 2018

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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Interview with Baryton Ludovic Tézier

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Interview with Baryton Ludovic Tézier