Name: Music in the City
Start: 2026-09-13T14:30:00
Location: Opéra de Dijon

Opéra de Dijon

The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, one of Europe's oldest orchestras, makes its Dijon debut with a program steeped in Nordic Romanticism. Alongside them, the Opéra welcomes back Leif Ove Andsnes for a monumental work of the piano repertoire.

At the heart of this concert, Brahms and Sibelius embody two icons of Romantic music in Northern Europe. From the former, we will revel in his Piano Concerto No. 2 , a contemplative and majestic work, performed by the elegant Leif Ove Andsnes. From the latter, we will experience the heroic Symphony No. 5 , music full of warmth, lyricism, and confidence in the future. The contemporary composer Anna Berg, of Norwegian and Vietnamese descent, imagines in her piece Nuances of Water a dreamy and wondrous ritual, a tribute to the element of water. Under the musical direction of Dima Slobodeniouk, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra offers a fresh perspective on a repertoire that has earned it its international reputation. An exceptional concert, both for its evocative nature and its historical significance.

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Upon emerging from the Underworld, Orpheus couldn't resist checking to see if Eurydice was still with him. He was punished for it: she is now imprisoned in Tartarus forever. Twelve years after Monteverdi's L'Orfeo , Stefano Landi recounts the terrible end of his hero in La Morte d'Orfeo .

The Death of Orpheus

This fantastic Afro-Cuban collective with its relentless groove brings together seven musicians who have graced the finest stages in Europe and are considered among the most brilliant and acclaimed of their generation. Their music is rich, innovative, and imbued with a terribly contagious energy.

A committee, a carousel: in two words, we grasp the energy that will sweep us away. El Comité refers to a joyful ensemble led by seven Cuban musicians: a virtuoso pianist, two horn players with syncopated phrasing, a rhythm section with an implacable groove, and, for this occasion, the exceptional presence of singer and violinist Yilian Canizares. Technically impeccable, El Comité's playing confirms an old adage: music enters every Cuban through the pores of their skin. The collective is intoxicating, guided by the common thread of virtuosity and openness to all encounters. In the opening act, the prayers of La Litanie des Cimes, led by Clément Janinet and his two companions, become powerful little pagan hymns imbued with the art of the griots thanks to the presence of Mah Damba, one of Mali's greatest singers.

The Committee

On the ground and in the air, the acrobats of The Fall of Angels move within a cinematic and tragicomic atmosphere, reclaiming their freedom. Before her production of the opera Ercole amante , due to open in May, Raphaëlle Boitel unveils here one of the shows that launched her career.

Black costumes against a black backdrop, a stage plunged into darkness barely illuminated by shafts of white light: it is in this unsettling atmosphere that the fallen angels of the company L'Oublié(e) move. Blending circus, dance, and theater, The Fall of Angels opens a dystopian space, an uncertain future where machines have seized power, depriving humans of their freedom of movement and judgment. It is a rebirth that the seven acrobats of the piece soon embody, in a virtuoso and liberating physical language, unfolding on the ground, on the apparatus, or on the Chinese pole. By thwarting the traps of conformity and passivity, by choosing free will, love, and the beauty of letting go, they find the strength to change things. In this chimerical future, as in our chaotic present, nothing is irrevocable.

The Fall of Angels

Composer and oud player Anouar Brahem brings to the stage the poignant melodies of his latest album, a new chapter in a repertoire where Arabic tradition, contemporary writing and jazz engage in dialogue.

Over the course of the thirteen albums he has released on the ECM label since the early 1990s, Anouar Brahem has established himself not only as a master of the oud but also as one of the most captivating artists of our time. Released in 2025, * After the Last Sky* is the latest addition to a repertoire that has unfolded at the crossroads of classical Arabic music, jazz, and the harmonic sophistications of Western composition. The album takes its title from a line by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish – “Where shall the birds fly, after the last sky?” – and explores this metaphysical question through a series of delicate chamber pieces. German cellist Anja Lechner, English pianist Django Bates, and Norwegian bassist Mats Eilertsen join him on stage for concerts of breathtaking expressive depth.

Anouar Brahem

Every Handel opera promises to be dazzling. With Riccardo Primo , baroque bel canto shines brightly, with the great Richard the Lionheart in the title role, conquering Cyprus… and coming to the rescue of the beautiful Costanza. 

Storm, shipwreck, misunderstandings, armed siege and happy ending  : in 1727, Riccardo Primo , re d'Inghilterra celebrates both the new King George II and Handel's recent naturalization. At London's King's Theatre, the greatest opera seria singers are gathered to perform a score of sublime, virtuosic or languid pages: the two sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, famous rivals whose onstage squabbles the public eagerly anticipates… and the celebrated castrato Senesino, in a role of rare difficulty (Riccardo). 

Richard the First

Two wicked stepsisters, but no stepmother. No pumpkin, no slipper… but a strange philosopher as a fairy godmother. This is Cinderella revisited: a musical fairy tale in chiaroscuro, where Perrault meets Marivaux.

With La Cenerentola , Rossini strikes the perfect balance between laughter and emotion. The young lovers and their guardian angel possess the nobility of the serio style, while the stepfamily bursts forth with comic absurdity . All cross paths amidst a series of misunderstandings with electrifying effects. Returning to the Dijon Opera after The Pearl Fishers (2025), director Mirabelle Ordinaire explores this interplay between reality and appearances, drawing parallels between Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland, and Lewis Carroll's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass , published in 1871. Acclaimed as Poppea and during her recital of Moving Songs , Dijon-born mezzo-soprano Marine Chagnon embodies the sensitive Angelina. Another rising star, the young Italian-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti, leads the Dijon Bourgogne Orchestra and the Dijon Opera Chorus.

La Cenerentola

While parents watch the shows, the kids get to be artists too! Let’s explore the artwork and get creative!

Children’s Workshop: La Cenerentola

María lives and dies, sings and dances, giving birth to the destiny of a city, Buenos Aires, and of a music, Piazzolla's Nuevo Tango . Powerful and dreamlike, this María of Buenos Aires lets us experience the unsettling magic of Buenos Aires nights .

Like a true sorcerer, Ástor Piazzolla blends tango, jazz, and classical music in his crucible. From an urban legend—that of a young factory worker who became a tango singer and then a prostitute, and on whose grave the city of Buenos Aires is said to have grown—germinates a vital cycle, as carnal as the pulse of tango: dead or alive, daughter or mother, María haunts the city. Sung, spoken, danced, her drama is surreal or mystical, embodied and searing. The work remains unclassifiable, like its performers—starting with Sol García, who embodies María here. In Amélie Parias's staging and under the artistic direction of William Sabatier, whose bandoneon leads an orchestral ensemble of rare colors, the complete version in eighteen tableaux is finally presented.

Maria from Buenos Aires

Subtitled " Sunday Morning Sessions" in reference to jazz and improvised music, the program for this concert opens the doors to uncharted musical territories, at the crossroads of contemporary research, improvisation, and traditional Mediterranean music. A single, powerful, irresistible spirit prevails.

Openness and curiosity are the watchwords of Jean-Guihen Queyras. Supported by the captivating percussion of brothers Bijan and Keyvan Chemirani, who play the zarb and daf respectively (Iranian instruments which they take far beyond the Persian tradition), and by the magical lyra (a small violin dating back to the Byzantine era) of Sokratis Sinopoulos, the luminous French cellist offers us an imaginary journey through the Balkans, to discover the "Thracian" civilization, a people of explorers, curious and open to other cultures. A beautiful metaphor for these four musician friends who all grew up amidst the fragrant Mediterranean hills.

Thrace

The French Youth Orchestra returns to the Dijon Opera with dazzling epics. An opportunity to hear the cream of the crop of the new French generation, alongside cello prodigy Edgar Moreau.


In residence at the Dijon Opera for the past three seasons, the French Youth Orchestra has built a reputation for concerts brimming with infectious energy. Under the direction of Kristiina Poska, their program will undoubtedly uphold this reputation, beginning with Exodus by Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür, a fresco for large orchestra brimming with visceral passion. This will be followed by Also sprach Zarathustra , a symphonic poem by Richard Strauss, famous for its inclusion in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey . And in between, Elgar's Cello Concerto will be performed by one of today's most virtuosic French artists, Edgar Moreau. A musical triptych with sonorities that are by turns epic and elegiac, where every note is sure to move the listener.