Act I

Act II

Benjamin Britten composed The Rape of Lucretia in 1946 after a radio-drama by André Obey. Britten and his librettist, two convinced pacifists involved way before WWII, address a European society bruised by war and hate.Running from the grand operatic machine, their inspiration drove them to a more intimate construction, the chamber opera. Britten wrote indeed for a small number of musicians and singers-actors in a musical and dramatic language where the narration exceeds the illusion on stage.Britten chose the myth of the dedicated and suicidal wife and wrote a piece that interrogates desire in its relation with anxiety: mutual love, gulty will and frustration.Britten makes us think about the violence in human relations, about sexuality and its dark zones. With Lucretia as heroin and victim, Britten makes us face the tragic human condition. An Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris production Co-produced by : C.I.C.T. - Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord With the support of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation and the Orange Foundation, patron of the Opéra national de Paris' audiovisual broadcasts.Executive production : Idéale Audience Director: Sébastien Glas © Opéra national de Paris - 2021Picture: © Studio J'adore ce que vous faites ! / OnP

Le viol de Lucrèce

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The Rape of Lucretia

Benjamin Britten composed The Rape of Lucretia in 1946 after a radio-drama by André Obey. Britten and his librettist, two convinced pacifists involved way before WWII, address a European society bruised by war and hate. Running from the grand operati

Benjamin Britten

Born in Lowestoft in 1913, Benjamin Britten studied with Frank Bridge and composed, when he was 10, a Simple Symphony. He truly made his mark in the musical world with Phantasy-Quartet, composed for oboe and strings and created in 1934 in Florence. Subsequent pieces such as Les Illuminations, to verses written by Rimbaud, or The Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings allowed him to assert his style and personality. In 1945, the creation of Peter Grimes marked both the birth of modern English opera and the beginning of his career as a dramatic musician. Many operatic works followed, among which The Rape of Lucretia in 1946, Albert Herring in 1947, The Turn of the Screw in 1954, A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1960, Death in Venice in 1973.&nbsp;Britten also wrote a large-scale requiem for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, War Requiem, as well as several pieces for cello created by Mstislav Rostropovitch.&nbsp;As he did not belong to any group or musical style, influenced by Purcell and English folklore, but also by musicians as diverse as Berg, Verdi, Moussorgski or Debussy, Britten forged his language away from fashion and circles and simply sought to adapt his music to the needs of his compositional work. He died in Aldeburgh in 1976.

Trained at the Académie de l'Opéra national de ParisBorn in Normandy, Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur trained with Maryse Castets at the Bordeaux Conservatoire after studying at Sciences Po Bordeaux. She joins the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris from 2019 to 2021. She takes part in the Salzburg Festival's Young Singers Project as the Second Lady (Cherubini's Médée) with the Wiener Philharmoniker, and performs in recital with the Mozarteum Orchestra.Named one of the revelations of lyric artists at the Victoires de la Musique awards, she sings Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande) and Ethel (Les Éclairs) at the Opéra Comique, the Third Lady (The Magic Flute) at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, and Mère Marie (Dialogues des carmélites) at the Opéra national de Bordeaux. In 2023-2024, she is Siegrune (La Walkyrie) at La Monnaie de Bruxelles, Mrs Meg Page (Falstaff) at the Opéra royal de Wallonie, Marguerite (Le Retour de Virginie) with the Orchestre national de Lyon. This season, Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur is the viola in Mahler's Second Symphony with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, and in Romeo Castellucci's staging of Néris (Cherubini's Médée) at the Opéra Comique and Opéra de Montpellier. She also played the viola in Israël en Egypte at the Haendel Festspiele Halle, conducted by Hervé Niquet, and recorded Massenet melodies for the Bru Zane label.At the Opéra national de Paris: L'Enfant et les Sortilèges (La Libellule, La Tasse chinoise, Maman), 2020; Le Viol de Lucrèce (Lucretia), 2021; Parsifal (Ein Klingsors Zaubermadchen, Ein Knappe), 2022; Wozzeck (Margret), 2022; The Magic Flute (Second Lady), 2022; Le Trouvère (Ines), 2022; Falstaff (Mrs Meg Page), 2024

Bouchard-Lesieur.Marie-Andrée © 

From South Carolina, Aaron Pendleton studied music at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, at Johnson C. Smith University and at the State University of Arizona. He attended various masterclasses included those of Sherrill Milnes. In 2019, he took part in the creation of 27 by Ricky Ian Gordon at the Opera of Las Vegas. At the Opera Studio of Las Vegas University, he sang Leaf in State of Grace by Linda Lister, Sky’s father in No Guarantees by Cynthia Wong and the Marquis de la Force in the Dialogues des Carmélites by Francis Poulenc. In 2020, he performed the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte and Olin Blitch in Susannah by Carlisle Floyd. First price of the Metropolitan Opera Competition in Arizona and finalist in Denver (Colorado) in 2019, Aaron Pendleton joined the national Opera Academy in September 2020.

Aaron Pendleton © Studio J'adore ce que vous faites

Born in Novy Svit, Ukraine, in 1990, baritone Danylo Matviienko completed his Bachelor studies at the Donetsk state music academy under prof. Piotr Onchul and MA studies at the National music academy of Ukraine under prof. Alexander Diachenko. He was also a member of the Akademia Operowa of the Polish National Theater in Warsaw and L’Académie of the Opéra National de Paris. He is currently at the Opera studio of the Oper Frankfurt.In Paris, he appeared in Boesman's Reigen, the Kurt Weill Story, as Dr Falke in Die Fledermaus and the Hunter in Rusalka. Roles at the National Music Academy of Ukraine, National Operetta Theatre in Kyiv and Kyiv Opera include Graf Danilo (Die lustige Witwe / The Merry Widow), Onegin (Eugene Onegin), Rossini's Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Macrobio (Pietra del paragone), Germano (La scala di seta) as well as Donizetti's Gasparo (Rita). Last season in Frankfurt he appeared in Křenek's Schwergewicht / Heavyweight, Fauré's Pénélope, Don Carlo, and new productions of Rossini's La gazzetta and Salome by Richard Strauss.He has sung numerous recitals in Ukraine and Poland. Concert appearances include Bach’s Magnificat, 10th and 147th cantatas at the Donbas Opera, Handel’s Messiah with the Kyiv symphony orchestra and choir, Duruflé Requiem with the Kyiv chamber choir "Sofia", Sviridov's Piesni bezvremenia with the choir of the National music academy of Ukraine. Danylo Matviienko is a winner of the second prize in the Antonina Campi international voice competition in Lublin and the Ada Sari competition in Nowy Sacz. He is also a Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He also has a master degree in mathematics from the Donetsk National University. As of the 2021-2022 season, Danylo will be joining the ensemble of the Opera Frankfurt.

Matviienko.Danylo

Born in Chicago, Alexander York is a graduate of Lawrence University (Wisconsin). He won numerous scholarships such as those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the arte-musica Foundation and the Fulbright Zscholar Program, which allowed him to continue his education in Europe. He obtained a master's degree at the Munich Musikhochschule under the direction of Lars Woldt, Rudi Spring, and Donald Sulzen.&nbsp;He performed the following roles at the Augsburg Theater: Angelotti and Sciarrone in Tosca, the Captain in Simplicius Simplicissimus by Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Weickmann and Fuhrmann in Kaspar Hauser by Hans Thomalla,the herald in Verdi's Otello and Belcore in the L'Elisir d'amore by Donizetti. In 2016, he participated in Renée Fleming's master classes at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He created the role of James Ramsey at the world premiere of To the Lighthouse by Zesses Seglias in August 2017 at the Bregenz Festival. He gave a recital at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam and also performed in Munich with the Munich Radio Symphony. He played the role of Bedienter in Der zerbrochene Krug by Viktor Ulmann.&nbsp;For his first season at the Paris Opera Academy, the baritone sang Dr. Falke in Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus at the MC93 in Bobigny and then on tour. In January 2020, he is l’Horloge and le Chat in L’Enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel on the stage of the Palais Garnier.&nbsp;He received the John Moriarty Award as a young artist in residence at the Central City Opera of Denvers in 2015 for his participation in the company's productions. The Bel Canto Society of Chicago gave him an honorary award and he received the second prize in the Mélodie and Oratorio category of the American Prize.&nbsp;Alexander York joined the Paris Opera Academy in September 2018.

York

French-Romanian mezzo-soprano Cornelia Oncioiu graduated from the Timisoara Conservatoire in opera singing. She has won many awards, including the Grand prize of the Eugenia Moldoveanu competition, the special prize of the Neue Stimmen competition in Germany, and the first prizes of the Haricléa Darclée, Ionel Perlea, Sabin Dragoi and Nicolae Bretan competitions. After Romanian debut in Hänsel und Gretel, Suor Angelica, Cavalleria rusticana, Madama Butterfly and Il Trovatore, she joined the Paris Opera’s Atelier lyrique where she perfected her technique with Janine Reiss, among others. Since then, she has performed at the Paris Opera (Giulio Cesare, Dialogues des carmélites, Elektra, Louise, La Cenerentola, The Barber of Seville, Suor Angelica, Madama Butterfly, La Sonnambula, The Tales of Hoffmann, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, Parsifal, Maudits les innocents, Le Nozze di Figaro, Le Soulier de satin…), at the Opéra national de Bordeaux (Rusalka), Grand Théâtre d’Avignon (Rusalka, Peter Grimes), at the Chorégies d’Orange and the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse (Rigoletto), the Opéra de Marseille (Madama Butterfly), at the Angers-Nantes-Opéra and Opéra de Toulon (Pelléas et Mélisande), Opéra de Tours (Roméo et Juliette), Opéra de Metz (Eugen Onegin, L'italiana in Algeri), in Paris at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet and Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord (The Rape of Lucretia). Abroad, she sings in Monte Carlo (Il viaggio a Reims), Tokyo (Diary of One Who Disappeared), Santiago de Chile (Madama Butterfly), Amsterdam (Rigoletto), Geneva (Madama Butterfly, Rusalka) and Shanghai (Pelléas et Mélisande). She has been working with many stage directors including Robert Wilson, Robert Carsen, André Engel, Frédéric Roels and has been singing with conductors like Hartmut Haenchen, Kent Nagano, Jesus Lopez Cobos or Philippe Jordan. This season, she is performing in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene at the MC93 in Bobigny with the Paris Opera’s Academy.

Cornelia Oncioiu

Born in Russia, Kseniia Proshina began her vocal studies in Raisa Gladkova's class at the Samara Academy of Arts and graduated in 2016. She performed the title role in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden and Sonya Gurvich in The Dawns Here Are Quiet by Kirill Molchanov. Since 2014, she has been focusing on the Italian repertoire with Alessandro Svab at the Accademia Lirica Santa Croce in Trieste, Italy. She sang the roles of Gilda in Rigoletto, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Adina in L'Elisir d'amore. She won the first prizes at the Saveliy Orlov and Hramov competitions in Samara. In 2018, she was a finalist in the “Toti Dal Monte” international song competition and won several prizes in competitions such as the Tenor Viñas in Barcelona and the Klaudia Taev in Pärnu Estonia. More recently she won the first prize at the Gianluca Campochiaro Competition in Italy. Beginning of the season 2019/20, she took part in the Paris Opera Academy’s Chinese Tour and performed at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, at the Shenyanget Poly Theater, and the Nanjing Jiangsu Art Theater. Kseniia Proshina joined the Paris Opera Academy in September 2019. In 2021, she sang Lucia Britten’s Rape of Lucretia at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, conducted by Léo Warynski and staged by Jeanne Candel, and she was a laureate of the AROP Award. Beginning 2022, she sang Amore in L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet and Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Palais Garnier.

Proshina

In residency at the Paris Opera Academy from 2019 to 2021 Born in Switzerland, Andrea Cueva Molnar began her studies in the class of Carmen Casellas at the Montreux-Vevey-Riviera Conservatory of Music. After obtaining her baccalauréat in 2012, she joined the Geneva High School of Music. In 2014, she continued her studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende in Frankfurt, in Hedwig Fassbender and Klesie Kelly-Moog's classes. Between 2016 and 2019, she sang in five young audience productions at the Frankfurt Opera: Onegin for children, Tosca for children, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Bohème and Die Kleine Opernwelt. In July 2019, as part of the Junge Oper Schloss Weikersheim, she performed the role of Mimi in La Bohème.Andrea Cueva Molnar won the ADAMI Prize in 2018, she also won the Second female prize in the Opera category of the Lyrical Nights of Marmande in 2020.

She joined the Paris Opera Academy in September 2019. 

She took part in the Paris Opera Academy's tour in China and performed at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the Shenyanget Poly Theater, and the Nanjing Jiangsu Art Theater. She performed on the stage of the Palais Garnier as the Princess in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortileges in January 2020. For her second season at the Paris Opera Academy, she portrayed Belinda in Dido and Æneas at the "Voix d'automne" Festival in Evian, conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón, and the Female Chorus in Benjamin Britten’s Rape of Lucretia at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord.During the season 2021/2022, she sang Silvia in L'isola disabitata at the Dijon Opera and Poussette (Manon), a Young Woman (Le Nozze di Figaro) and a Flowermaiden (Parsifal) at the Paris Opera.

Cueva Molnar.Andrea (c) Ariel Leuenberger

Born in Sweden, Tobias Westman graduated from the University of Stockholm in singing. He made his operatic debuts on the main Scandinavian stages in the roles of Gennaro (Lucrezia Borgia) at the Malmö Opera House, or Albert (Die tote Stadt) at the Wermland Opera in Karlstadt, Sweden. The following season, he was Pinkerton in a concert version of Madama Butterfly, then Gastone (La Traviata) in a staging by Olivier Py for the Malmö Opera. During summer 2019, he performed Tamino (The Magic Flute) at the Opera pa Skäret Festival. Tobias Westman joined the Paris Opera’s Academy in Septembre 2019 and made his Palais Garnier debut in the roles of the Teapot, the Tree frog and the Little old man in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges in January 2020. He appeared in The Rape of Lucretia at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in 2021. In 2022, he sang Gernando (L’Isola disabitata) at the Dijon Opera, the Second Friend (Wozzeck) and the third Esquire (Parsifal), the Second Priest and the First armoured man (The Magic Flute) at the Paris Opera.

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