Lighting Designer

On the ruins of an old prison, Persada seeks the truth about her mother, "the woman who sings", whose love once defied the tyrant Soliman. In this singspiel composed in 1780, the young Mozart voices his aspirations to freedom and justice, foreshadowing The Abduction from the Seraglio. Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion bring Zaïde together with other rarely performed works in a humanist fresco created in Salzburg in 2025.

Zaïde or the Path of Light

Lycée Carnot

A devilish seducer defying both God and society, Don Giovanni has become the symbol of the libertine with a formidable life force for some, and a profane and mendacious cynicism for others. The powerful man combines all the flaws and has fascinated artists and audiences since his creation by Tirso de Molina and Molière, closely followed, in Prague in 1787, by Mozart and da Ponte. The two creators fixed the myth and offered lyric art its first hero transcending the ages. In the staging, Agnès Jaoui achieves a rare balance between comedy and drama, multiplying the expressive power of the work and bringing a renewed vision of the characters. A sparkling ensemble of soloists praises this new co-production bringing together no fewer than three French opera houses. A production not to be missed under any circumstances!

Don Giovanni

Opéra Berlioz

With his poetic opera The Cunning Little Vixen, Leoš Janáček brought nothing less than the eternal cycle of becoming and passing to the stage. It tells the life story of the young, rebellious vixen Bystrouška, or Sharp Ears, who is captured by the forester and starts a revolution at his homestead before she succeeds in escaping. Back in the freedom of the forest, she founds a family with a fox and is then shot by a poacher. The seemingly so civilized human world looks wistfully at wild nature, which follows its own laws of life and love.

Das schlaue Füchslein

Bebelplatz

Massenet is the composer who did the most to establish the Opéra-Comique as a major performing arts center. Paradoxically, his adaptation of Goethe's first novel was rejected by the director at the time, who preferred to offer his bourgeois audiences happy love stories. The Viennese triumph of Werther quickly opened the doors to our institution, where it has become one of the most performed titles.

Werther

National Theatre of the Opera Comique

Lea Desandre, Thomas Dunford, and the Ensemble Jupiter invite you to explore the repertoire of Julie Andrews, the unforgettable embodiment of Mary Poppins and an emblematic figure of dreams, gentleness, and poetry, for one evening. Set to the most beautiful melodies of Leonard Bernstein, Henry Mancini, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Sandy Wilson, Noël Coward, Robert & Richard Sherman, Frederick Loewe, Carol Burnett & Julie Andrews.

Chasing rainbows

After Mozart left Salzburg for the first time in 1777, radical changes occurred in his life: He had a groundbreaking encounter with Haydn, who became his friend, and Mozart became acquainted with Munich and the Mannheim Orchestra. Added to this were his unhappy love affair with Aloysia Weber, a disappointing stay in Paris, and the tragic death of his mother. Mozart returned to his birthplace and, with a heavy heart, once again entered the service of Prince-Archbishop Colloredo. But he had changed profoundly as a person. The great vocal works he now composed are permeated by the spirit of the Enlightenment and by the philosophical and aesthetic currents that were then stirring Europe. Zaide marked the beginning of this new aesthetic, which refused any concession to gallant taste and instead explored the truth of the human soul. The fact that Mozart gradually freed himself from all tutelage — he left Colloredo, Salzburg, his father — and subsequently produced dramatic and sacred masterpieces such as Idomeneo (1780-1781), The Abduction from the Seraglio (1781-1782), and the Great Mass in C minor (1782-1783) is directly and unmistakably connected.

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Zaide or The Path of Light

Felsenreitschule

“Let us love, laugh and sing without end”, proclaims Manon, even more attracted by jewels and the easy life than by her love – however sincere – for the Chevalier des Grieux. If this opera, inspired by Abbé Prévost’s novel, is one of Jules Massenet’s most popular, it is because the drama is portrayed in a musical idiom as fertile as it is varied...

Manon

Opéra Bastille

The end of a war. A child's birthday party. A wall falls in the center of the city. A first kiss. The economy collapses. A new millennium. It's getting warmer. Friends die. And everyone keeps buying new mobile phones.

We Are The Lucky Ones

National Opera & Ballet

To accompany our existential vertigo, our most secret emotions, our desperate quest for compassion: such is the fascinating role of music… and more specifically of The Song of the Earth , the absolute music of consolation.

In 1908, Gustav Mahler was in the throes of profound suffering: the grief of losing his daughter was compounded by serious professional and health difficulties. From this emerged Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth ), a work inspired by poems of Chinese origin, blending the intimacy of the lied with the sweep of the symphony. Its six movements imbue human solitude with subtle nuances, ranging from an ironic drinking song (I) to an evocation of China (III), culminating in a funeral march transformed into a cosmic communion with nature (VI). Bertrand Couderc's lighting design enhances this inner journey, shared by mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor and tenor Matthew Cairns. With its music director Kristiina Poska, the Orchestre Français des Jeunes (French Youth Orchestra) makes a highly anticipated return to the vocal repertoire at the Opéra de Dijon, following their acclaimed performance of Bluebeard's Castle in 2025.

French Youth Orchera

Opéra de Dijon

In a dispute with Fortuna and Virtù over supremacy over humankind, Amor seeks to prove that love alone stands above all else. Thus Poppea rises to become Empress of Rome through Nero's love for her – and yet: “love” is the wrong word. What is at play is an erotic driving force, through which manipulation is carried out ruthlessly and power is exercised. Whoever loves has already lost, and anyone who stands in the way of Poppea's interests is mercilessly cast aside – Nero's wife Ottavia as well as the teacher and philosopher Seneca. With sensuous delight and without remorse, accompanied by some of the most beautiful and passionate music early Baroque opera has to offer, Poppea and Nero revel in their victory.

Lighting Designer

Bertrand Couderc

Events

Upcoming events

9 - 12 Sep, 2026

Zaïde or the Path of Light · Opéra Comique

Jan 10, 2027

French Youth Orchera · Opéra de Dijon

Jun 20 - Jul 17, 2027

L'incoronazione Di Poppea · Oper Köln

Past events

9 - 12 Sep, 2026

Zaïde or the Path of Light · Opéra Comique

24 - 31 May, 2026

Don Giovanni · Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier

About

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