In July 2022, the Paris Opera inaugurated registrations for the first auditions for its new Lyric Troupe, destined to perform as of the 2023/2024 season.From auditions to performances on the stages of the Palais Garnier and the Opéra Bastille, this exclusive documentary explores the reasons that led the Paris Opera to re-establish a Lyric Troupe and reveals the voices, backgrounds and personalities of the seven singers recruited for this first season.Their stories shed light on the aspirations of a young generation of opera singers and the expectations of a leading international institution. With the support of the Fondation Orange, sponsor of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts, and the POP Circle, Patrons of the Paris Opera’s audiovisual and digital projects© Opéra national de Paris - 2024

TROUPE OPERA_0043_© E. Bauer - OnP

The Lyric Troupe_trailer

The Lyric Troupe

In July 2022, the Paris Opera inaugurated registrations for the first auditions for its new Lyric Troupe, destined to perform as of the 2023/2024 season. From auditions to performances on the stages of the Palais Garnier and the Opéra Bastille, this 

Jérémie Cuvillier

Born in New York, Ilanah Lobel-Torres graduated from the New England Conservatory and obtained a vocal performance degree at the Mannes School of Music.Following her master in 2019, she joined the Paris Opera Academy, where she performed on the Bastille Opera and Palais Garnier stages and toured in Beirut, at La Grange au Lac in Évian and at the Dijon Opera. In September 2020, she was diagnosed with a primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma and underwent six cycles of chemotherapy. Six months after the end of her treatment, she came back to Paris for the 2021/22 season of the Paris Opera. She sang Ozia (La Giuditta) at La Grange au Lac with director Thibault Noally, and Costanza (L’isola disabitata) at Dijon Opera with Fayçal Karoui. With the Academy, she also appeared in concerts and as the sole soloist in chamber music concert series with the Paris Opera Orchestra. I the 2022/23 season, Ilanah Lobel-Torres returned as Ozia at the Chaise-Dieu Festival and the Festival Sinfonia en Périgord with Les Accents and Thibault Noally, made her debut at the Santa Fe Opera in the role of the First Nymph (Rusalka) under Lidiya Yankovskaya, and as an understudy for Proserpina (L'Orfeo) under Harry Bicket. She is joining the Paris Opera Company for the 2023/24 season.





At the Paris Opera: L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (the Shepherdess, the Bat), 2020; Manon (Javotte), 2022; Le Nozze di Figaro (a donna), 2022; Le Nozze di Figaro (Barbarina), 2022; Peter Grimes (Second Niece), 2023

Ilanah Lobel Torres © Barbara Torres

Born in Avignon, Emy Gazeilles turned to opera after several years in the world of contemporary music and musical theatre. She entered the Lyon Conservatoire and studied with Pierre Ribémont. She is the recipient of the First Prize of the 9th Arioso Competition in Nimes, and the Gordes 14th international competition, as well as the Young Performer Talent prize of the Autumn Symphonies competition in 2021. In 2022, she was unanimously awarded the first prize for singing at the Paris Conservatoire with Yann Toussaint and continued her studies with Antoine Palloc, Leontina Vaduva and Annick Massis. In the 2022-23 season, she performed the roles of Gilda (Rigoletto) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Opéra de Rouen, Iris (Sémélé) at the Opéra national de Lille, the Second Elf (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) in Rouen, Frasquita (Carmen) at the Opéra de Toulon, Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) at the Concerts au coucher du Soleil in Oppède-le-vieux. Other performances include Germaine Tailleferre’s Concerto de la fidélité with the Paris Chamber Orchestra at the Philharmonie de Paris / Cité de la musique. She also made several guest appearances in French TV shows, including “Musique en fêtes” for the Chorégies d’Orange (France 3) and “Culturebox l’émission” (France 4). Next season, she will perform in recital at the Opéra d'Avignon, the Opéra de Massy, the Chorégies d'Orange, the Montperreux Opera Festival or Opéra de Rennes... Emy Gazeilles is a member of the 2023-2024 Generation Opera class. She is a finalist in the Voix nouvelles 2023 competition and a member of the Paris Opera Troupe for the 2023-2024 season.

Gazeilles.emy (c) Chevalier blanc

Member of the Paris Opera CompanyNominated at the 2023 Victoires de la musique classique in the Revelation opera singer category, Marine Chagnon is a French mezzo-soprano with an eclectic career path. After modern-jazz dance, singing and dramatic art, she dedicated her time to opera with a Master's Degree at the Paris Conservatoire in Elene Golgevit's class. She then joined the Paris Opera Academy and won several awards, including the Young Performer's Prize at the Mâcon Competition, the Special Jury Prize at the Canari Competition, and, in 2023, the AROP and the Carpeaux Awards. Fascinated by words, it’s mostly through early music that she first discovered the stage with the role of Euridice (L’Orfeo) at the Dijon Opera, and the title role in La Giuditta at la Grange au Lac, La Chaise Dieu and the Auditorium du Louvre, and the title role in L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet and the Opéra / Grand Théâtre in Dijon, with the Paris Opera Academy. Her beginning career took her to the Opéra national de Bordeaux (Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly), Opéra national de Lorraine (Flora in La Traviata), the Paris Philharmonie (Olympe la Rebelle), Opéra de Vichy (Second Lady in The Magic Flute), Cité des Congrès in Nantes (Closing concert of La Folle Journée de Nantes) and again at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet with the Paris Opera Academy (Lucilla in La Scala di seta). Her first album for Mirare, "Ljus", with pianist Joséphine Ambroselli, features Swedish melodies from the first half of the 20th century. Marine Chagnon is a member of the Paris Opera Company for the 2023-2024 season.







At the Paris Opera: Rigoletto (A Page), 2021; La Cenerentola (Tisbe), 2022; Don Giovanni (Zerlina), 2023; Cendrillon (Dorothée), 2023<s></s>

Chagnon.Marine © Romane Begon

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

Member of the Troupe lyrique de l'Opéra national de ParisA graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and Herald-Sun Aria finalist, Nicholas Jones has performed a variety of roles for Opera Australia, including the Remendado in Carmen, Marasquin in Two Weddings, One Bride and Schmidt in Werther. He has also sung Tamino and Count Almaviva in touring productions of The Magic Flute and The Barber of Seville. In 2016, he created the role of Fish Lamb in Cloudstreet presented by State Opera South Australia. He has sung the Male Chorus in Victorian Opera's The Rape of Lucretia, Britten's Canticles and Stefan Cassomenos' Art of Thought for the Melbourne Recital Centre and Haydn's Creation for the Sydney Philharmonic.He was also part of the original cast of Deborah Cheetham's opera Pecan Summer. More recently, he sang Michael Driscoll in Whiteley, as well as Tony in West Side Story for Opera Australia and Tom in Christina's World for State Opera South Australia. In 2022, he sang Tsarevich Gvidon (The Golden Cockerel) and Harry (Voss) in Adelaide, Handel's Messiah in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, Jaquino (Fidelio) with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and returned to Opera Australia as Count Almaviva.He recently won the Green Room Award for his portrayal of David in The Mastersingers of Nuremberg at Opera Australia, and was nominated for the Helpmann Award for the same role. In 2023, he appeared in Mozart's Mass in C minor with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and as Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore for State Opera South Australia's inaugural Gilbert &amp; Sullivan Festival. In 2024, he is Laertes in Brett Dean's Hamlet at Opera Australia. Nicholas Jones is the recipient of the Dame Heather Begg Memorial Award. He joins the Troupe lyrique de l'Opéra national de Paris from the 2023-2024 season.At the Opéra national de Paris: L'Affaire Makropoulos (Vitek), 2023; Turandot (Pong), 2023; Adriana Lecouvreur (Poisson), 2024; Don Quichotte (Juan), 2024

Jones.Nicholas (c) Patrick Togher Artists’ Management

Born in Santiago de Compostela, Alejandro Baliñas Vieites first studied piano in his hometown until 2017, before dedicating himself to singing first in Santiago and then in La Coruña until 2019. The same year, he entered the Conservatory of Music of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence. He decided to continue his training at the Liceu Conservatoire, having obtained a grant from the Ferrer-Salat Foundation. There, he worked with Carlos Chausson and Manuel Burgueras. He took part in the last two opera seasons organised by the Friends of La Coruña Opera, and has performed in Sabadell, where he took part in three opera academies (Falstaff, in the role of Pistola; La Cenerentola, as Alidoro; The Magic Flute, for Sarastro). In 2021, he performed the roles of Angelotti (Tosca) and the Kingi (Aida), still for the Sabadell Opera. He also sang Tom Johnson’s The Four-Note Opera and the role of Martino (L'occasione fa il ladro) at the Sarria Opera.In July 2021, he took part in the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, where he performed the role of Don Profondo (Il viaggio a Reims). He joined the Paris Opera Academy in September 2021 and performed, in March 2022, the role of Seneca (L'Incoronazione di Poppea). During the summer of 2022, he sang the role of Anselmo at the Rossini Festival (La Gazzetta). During the 2022/23 season, he also sang Il Marchese (La forza del destino) in La Coruña. In 2023, he won the AROP Award and the Cercle Carpeaux Award.During the summer of 2023, he took part in the Salzburg Festival Young Singers projects and performed in Martinu’s opera The Greek Passion (Kostandis). In September 2023, he portrayed Surin (The Queen of Spade) in Valencia. Alejandro Baliñas Vieites is a member of the Paris Opera Company for the 2023/24.



At the Paris Opera: Salomé (a Cappadocian), 2022; Carmen (Zuniga), 2022; Hamlet (First gravedigger), 2023; Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Schlémil), 2023

Balinas Vieites.Alejandro (c) J'adore ce que vous faites ! OnP

Member of the Troupe lyrique de l'Opéra national de ParisIn 2002, Florent Mbia joined Françoise Petro's singing class at the École nationale de musique de Montreuil. In 2008, he was awarded a first prize in singing with congratulations from the jury, and a diploma in chamber music studies in 2009. He has taken part in numerous masterclasses with artists such as Jose Cura and Thomas Moser. In 2008, he was a finalist in the Strasbourg International Singing Competition, and won the E. J. Marshall prize (best baritone) at the Paris International Competition (UFAM), degree "Honneur".In 2009, he won first prize at the Forum lyrique européen d'Arles, first prize at the Concours international de chant de Clermont-Ferrand and joined the Paris Opera Chorus. He became resident artist at the Centre lyrique Clermont-Auvergne during the 2010-2011 season. He sings Norton (La cambiale di matrimonio) and the bass part in Rossini's Petite Messe solennelle.He has appeared as the Second Companion (Wozzeck), Montano (Otello), Orpheus (Orpheus and Eurydice), Papageno (The Magic Flute),&nbsp;the Notary (Don Pasquale), Don Giovanni and Don Alfonso in&nbsp;Mozart se déguise directed by Stephen Taylor. In 2021, he performs the role of Laurence (Le Magnifique) at the Opéra de Reims.He has appeared as soloist in concerts, oratorios and masses such as Duruflé's Requiem, Faure's Requiem, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Handel's Messiah and Carmina Burana.He is a member of the Paris Opera Lyric Troupe since the 2023-2024 season. At the Paris Opera: La Bohème (the Customs Sergeant), 2017; Mzensk's Lady Macbeth (a stage manager), 2019; Otello (Araldo), 2019; Tosca (a jailer), 2021; Rigoletto (the Count of Ceprano), 2021; La Force du destin (a mayor), 2022; Turandot (Ping), 2023; La Traviata (Il Marchese d'Obigny), 2024; La Vestale (Chief of the Aruspices, A consul), 2024

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