Schedule of events - Opéra de Lausanne

An impossible love between Mireille, the daughter of wealthy farmers, and Vincent, the son of a poor basket maker, unfolds as a Shakespearean tragedy under the southern sun. What gives the opera its charm is above all its endearing heroine, in the vein of the Marguerites and Juliets we also owe to Gounod, the beauty of the arias imbued with the truth of the feelings to which the composer is attached, and the delightful Occitan local color that he so skillfully translated into music.

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« Founded in 2017 in memory of Claire and Willy Kattenburg, who were passionate about the arts and music, this competition has established itself as a springboard for young Swiss opera singers. »

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A ghost story and one of the most spellbinding operas of the 20th century, based on Henry James’s short story *The Turn of the Screw* (1898), whose themes have always inspired Benjamin Britten: childhood, innocence, uncanny fantasy, corrupting evil, and fevered imagination. Are the orphans Miles and Flora truly bewitched by the ghosts of depraved former servants? Or are these merely the fantasies of their governess? Does the specter of the sinister Peter Quint exist? With a remarkable sense of drama, the composer maintains the mystery.

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A baroque and irresistible political satire about the madness of power. State lies, power struggles, romantic rivalries, assassination attempts, betrayals, and blackmail—it has everything to captivate the audience. Acclaimed in Venice in 1709, Agrippina is today considered one of Handel’s earliest masterpieces and one of the high points of the Baroque era.

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A singer and dancer at the Alcazar cabaret, this beautiful and mysterious heroine is the Marlene Dietrich—of the films *Morocco* and *The Blue Angel*—of the opera world. A flamboyant and inventive production will transport you to the worlds of the circus and cabaret of the 1930s, where Viennese waltzes, catchy and light melodies, lush orchestration tinged with exoticism, and the sensual lyricism of grand arias come together.

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Will the young Princess Flora succeed in freeing her beloved husband Pig, the enchanted pig, from the clutches of the wicked Adelaide, the witch’s daughter? Charming or frightening monsters, kind husbands, beloved brothers turned into bears, wild swans, or pigs—all inhabit a fabulous world, playing out and replaying the story of Beauty and the Beast. A humorous production composed by Jonathan Dove, one of the most frequently performed living opera composers in the world.

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A passionate love story set against the backdrop of bel canto. Vincenzo Bellini adapted the story of Romeo and Juliet into *I Capuleti e I Montecchi* for La Fenice in Venice in 1830, with a libretto by Felice Romani. The composer drew inspiration from Shakespeare’s Italian predecessors, including Matteo Bandello, and thus plunges us into the heart of Machiavellian political struggles, the backdrop to a deeply moving and little-known scene between the two lovers after they have been poisoned.

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This opera by Debussy is a unique lyrical work in the history of music. The voices seem to speak and sing of an unspoken, sentimental, and mysterious longing, while the orchestra acts as a storyteller and conduit for the unconscious. Mélisande unfurls her song and her hair all the way to the foot of the tower where Pelléas awaits her… In an atmosphere of melancholic dreaminess, within a dreamlike forest, a vast, empty palace shrouded in sea mist shelters a trio of lovers with obscure identities, who, despite the weight of fate, still seek the light, the sky, and love.

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Prague, 1787: Mozart would leave an indelible mark on the history of opera with *Don Giovanni*, imbuing his music with the heroic and heart-wrenching power of a human soul defying God, society, and all the values and institutions of his time. Italian director Andrea Bernard will treat us to a *Don Giovanni* that collects

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