Florian Sempey

A decade before the French Revolution, in a country riven with bitter polemics, Gluck throws the history of opera into confusion by raising it to an unheard-of peak of tragic intensity. Experiencing his two Iphigenias in a single evening goes beyond the norms of operatic life: it is to enter the very heart of the curse on the family of King Atreus of Mycenae, to follow a logical destiny through a cycle of endless violence. How does the victim of Aulis become the murderess of Tauris? That is the burning question that Dmitri Tcherniakov must adress, plunging the spectator into the midst of a household haunted by the dead and setting in train an implacable process of dehumanization, with parallels to our world today. Conducting Le Concert d’Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm drives this dual tragedy to the summit of its expressive power, leaving humanity to be translated through arias of the utmost poignancy.

Gounod's Faust at the Bavarian State Opera: Jonathan Tetelman plays Faust, the scholar who makes a pact with Mephistopheles (Kyle Ketelsen) before seducing Marguerite (Olga Kulchynska). The unfortunate woman descends into madness but ultimately achieves redemption. Lotte de Beer directs this production, which marks Nathalie Stutzmann's debut in Munich as conductor.

In 1991, Laurence Equilbey's creation of Accentus revolutionized the world of vocal music. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the choir, accompanied by a quartet of top-flight soloists, gave a grand concert at the Philharmonie de Paris in March 2023. Mendelssohn, whose choral works are among the jewels of vocal music, was honored.

Divested of its traditional attributes – glass slipper and pumpkin carriage – and dominated by a tyrannical stepfather instead of a cruel stepmother, Rossini’s la Cenerentola plays with these most conventional of fairy‑tale characters. Nonetheless Cinderella lives in a closed world devoid of tenderness and under the yoke of the tormentor whom she protects. Deep beneath her goodness smoulders a fire that her encounter with the prince will set free… Guillaume Gallienne subtly highlights the halftones of this dramma giocoso, somewhere between opera buffa and opera seria, and ranging from sombre melancholy to the burlesque.

The staging of Gioacchino Rossini's two-act comic opera, with libretto by Cesare Sterbini, at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma during the 2016/2017 season.

Composed for the Paris Opéra, the romantic but ultimately tragic narrative of Donizetti’s grand opera La Favorite is set amidst the Moorish invasions of Spain and the power struggles between religion and the state in the 14th century. The novice Fernand abandons his monastery having fallen in love with the noble Léonor, not knowing that she is the King’s mistress and favourite. Drawing on traditions established by Rossini and Meyerbeer, La Favorite is noted for Donizetti’s innovative use of the orchestra and for some of his most renowned and enthralling arias. This acclaimed production opened the 2022 Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo, and is performed with its original French libretto.

For the 13th edition of the Concert de Paris, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the Orchestre national de France, the Choeur and Maîtrise de Radio France, conducted by Cristian Măcelaru, along with leading international soloists, will perform a program with a Brazilian flavor, in celebration of the Brazil-France 2025 season.

A staging of Charles Gounod's "Faust", staged by Tobias Kratzer.