Donizetti La Fille du régiment

Ion Marin is one of few conductors to work on the highest level in both the symphonic and operatic domains. He has conducted virtually all the great European orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre national de France, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome) and St. Petersburg Philharmonic. He is a regular guest at the world’s major opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera (New York), Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich) and Opéra national de Paris. The Salzburg Mozarteum University appointed him Professor of the Endowed Claudio Abbado chair for conducting, starting academic year 2020/2021. Maestro Marin’s discography of over 40 titles, released on Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI, Sony and Philips, has earned him three Grammy nominations, the Diapason d'Or and the German Recording Critics’ Award. Last releases include the Waldbühne concert featuring Renée Fleming and the Berliner Philharmoniker and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with David Garrett and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Born in Romania, Ion Marin studied composition, piano and conducting at the George Enescu Music Academy and at Mozarteum Salzburg. He also studied philosophy and the history of religion. Defecting from Romania’s dictatorship in 1986 led to a new life and musical career as well as his receiving Austrian citizenship.

Born in Monaco in 1960, Jean-Louis Grinda began his career in 1981 as artistic secretary at the Avignon Opera and Chorégies d'Orange. From 1986 to 1999, he was director of the Grand Théâtre de Reims. In 1996, he was appointed general and artistic director of the Opéra royal de Wallonie (Liège), a position he held until 2007; he imposed an eclectic programme, made his directorial debut with Singin'in the Rain (Molière 2001 for best musical) and staged a highly acclaimed production of the Ring. Since then he has directed over 40 operas and musicals, from Paris to Tel Aviv, Montreal, Hong Kong, Santiago de Chile, Tokyo, Shanghai... For fifteen years, from 2007 to 2022, He was director of the Monte Carlo Opera, during which his notable achievements include enhancing the repertoire, increasing the number of performances, initiating operations aimed at attracting younger audiences. In 2015 he created with Cecilia Bartoli an orchestra attached to the Monte Carlo Opera, Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco, with performances in major venues in Europe, as well as at the Salzburg Festival. In 2016, he was appointed director of the Chorégies d’Orange. His current projects include La Bohème at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman (May 2024), Bianca e Falliero for the opening of the Rossini Festival in Pesaro (August 2024); Guillaume Tell, Maria Stuarda, Werther will follow...

The Opéra de Monte-Carlo is well known to Rudy Sabounghi given that as a student at the Lycée Albert 1er he already had walk-on parts there, and it was there that he discovered his vocation for opera. However, as no one is a prophet in their own country, it was with other leading theatre companies and opera houses that he had to prove to himself. This led him to work for artists such as Klaus Michael Gruber (Schaubühne in Berlin, Monnaie de Bruxelles, Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Operhaus Zurich…), Luc Bondy (Young Vic in London, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Burgtheater & Akademie in Vienna, Berliner Ensemble, Schauspielhaus in Zurich, BAM in New York), Jean-Claude Berutti (Opéra de Lyon and Vilnius Opera, Comédie-Française, Théâtre du peuple in Bussang, Théâtre national Wallonie-Bruxelles, NTGent in Gand), Jacques Lassalle (Comédie-Française, Oslo, Athens, Venice), Luca Ronconi (Monnaie, Teatro Argentina in Rome), Deborah Warner (Wiener Festwochen), Jean Liermier (Geneva, Lausanne), and more recently with Fabrice Murgia, Muriel Mayette and Arnaud Desplechin. For dance he has worked with Anne-Teresa de Keersmaeker (Brussels, Antwerp, Copenhagen) and Lucinda Childs (Ballet et Opéra du Rhin). He has of course often worked with Jean-Louis Grinda, in Monaco as well as at the Operas of Rome, Valencia, Liège, Vienna, Chorégies d’Orange, Macerata Opera Festival. Next summer, at the Rossini Festival, he will design the set for Pesaro’s Bianca e Falliero, directed by Jean-Louis Grinda.

Born in Santiago de Chile, Jorge Jara studied architecture there before moving to Berlin, where, from 1975 on, he began creating costumes for the cinema, opera and theatre. He works with stage directors such as Pierre Audi, Luc Bondy, Nicolas Brieger, Guy Joosten and Nikolaus Lehnhoff. His many productions include What Next? (Carter) and Von heute auf morgen (Schönberg) at the Berliner Staatsoper, a Mozart cycle and Lulu in Liège, La Bohème in Lyon and Zurich, Fidelio in Leipzig, Roméo et Juliette at the New York Metropolitan Opera, Der Cornet and Galileo in Geneva, The Tempest and Le Roi Roger in Frankfurt, The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival, Un ballo in maschera and Orphée aux Enfers in Lausanne, L’elisir d’amore in Amsterdam, Rigoletto in Copenhagen, La Vestale in Vienna (Theater an der Wien) and about fifteen productions at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. His recent productions include Il turco in Italia in Vienna and Avignon, Aida and La sonnambula in Düsseldorf, and La Bohème in Hamburg. At the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, he has designed the costumes for The Queen of Spades, Le nozze di Figaro, Falstaff, La traviata, Das Reingold, Pagliacci, The Gambler, Tannhäuser, Falstaff, Lucia di Lammermoor, Thaïs, Il turco in Italia and La Damnation de Faust.

Laurent Castaingt divides his time between theatre, dance and opera, constantly seeking to diversify the genres.  He has collaborated with personalities as diverse as Alfredo Arias, Bernard Murat, Jean-Louis Grinda, Richard Brunel, Jean-Claude Auvray, and René Loyon, as well as with Karel Reisz, the Japanese choreographer Hideyuki Yano, Roman Polanski, Gérard Desarthe and François Marthouret, Sylvie Testud, Laure Duthilleul, Madeleine Marion, Pierre Barrat and Marie-Noël Rio, Jean-Claude Berutti, Marie-Pascale Osterrieth, Alain Delon and many more. He has designed the sets and lighting for the theatre adaptation of Virginie Despentes’ novel King-Kong Théorie at the Théâtre de l’Atelier (directed by Vanessa Larré). His research on luminous matter and nature inspired an outdoor installation in Geneva, Écorces vives, as well as a collaboration with the comic book artist François Schuitten for Planet of Visions, for Expo 2000 in Hanover. He has worked for major venues in Paris, Vienna (Volksoper), Barcelona (Liceu), Rome (Teatro Valle), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colón), the opera houses of Hong Kong, Valencia, Tokyo, Dallas, the Chorégies d’Orange, the Sporting de Monaco. He has designed the lighting for more than twenty operas at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, more recently Carmen, Thaïs, Madama Butterfly, Il turco in Italia, Werther, La Damnation de Faust and La traviata. He has won three nominations for the Molière award for best lighting design. He is at present working on a book for Deuxième Époque publishers, devoted entirely to the work of stage lighting and its rapport with painting.

Born in Hyères in 1989, Grabriel Grinda grew up in Belgium and Monaco before moving to Paris and New York to begin an audio-visual degree course at ESRA, graduating in 2012. Passionate about video and music, he has worked with Opéra de Monte-Carlo since 2014 where he produces artistic communication videos, and where he made his first steps in video scenography with Prokofiev’s The Gambler, before collaborating with the stage designer Laurent Castaingt and the videographer Alexandre Nachat on the entirely video stage design for Tannhäuser. Since then he has produced regular creations for the opera in Nice, Toulouse, Valladolid and Chorégies d’Orange (The Barber of Seville, the Casta diva Gala, Carmen), and explored new interactions between music, dance and video mapping: in Debussy’s Jeux with the pianist Giovanni Bellucci and the dancer Eugénie Andrin, in D’âme Nature, premiered by the soprano Laure Baert with Samuel Labarthe, and What about Tomorrow?, an audio-visual music show played in the Middle East. Since 2019 he has been producing and directing video recordings of operas for television and cinema: Carmen, Thaïs, Boris Godunov as well as La traviata. In 2021 he formed a partnership with the videographer Alexandre Nachat to create the audio-visual production company Vanishing Point.

Born in Livorno (ltaly) in 1960, Stefano Visconti studied the piano and then choral conducting with Fosco Corti and Roberto Gabbiano, as well as orchestra conducting with Piero Bellugi and Giancarlo Andretta. He was appointed Choirmaster at Opéra de Monte-Carlo in 2007. Before this he was Choirmaster at the Teatro Goldoni, Livorno (1991-2001), Choirmaster at the Opéra-Théâtre d'Avignon (2001-2007), as well as Choirmaster at the Festival Puccini, Torre del Lago (1999-2015). From 1984 to 2001 he conducted the Guido Monaco Polychronic Choir of Livorno which, under his direction, won several national awards (Vittorio Veneto, Arezzo and Florence competitions). In 2000 he founded the Chamber Choir of Tuscany, formed of professionals. He directed the reconstitution of the complete sacred works of Giuseppe Cambini for soloists, choir, and orchestra. Since 2008 he has conducted the chairs of the Sanxay Lyrical Evenings. He is the artistic and music director of the Monte-Carlo Chamber Choir. He has made several recordings with Foné, Agora and Kikko Classics, in particular several of Mascagni's operas (L'amico Fritz, I Rantzau, Lodoletta, Guglielmo Ratcliff, Silvano, Cavalleria rusticana, Iris and Sì). Since 2017 he has directed the coordination of the chairs for the Festival des Chorégies d'Orange.

After studying literature at Rouen University and then History of Art at the École du Louvre, Marie Gautrot studied singing at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, where she received precious guidance from Marie-Claire Cottin, Pierre Mervant, Gerda Hartman and Mireille Alcantara. She sang the roles of Albine (Thaïs) at Opéra de Monte-Carlo and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Giovanna (Rigoletto) and Emilia (Otello) at Opéra de Paris, the leading role of Djamileh in Compiègne, Opinion publique (Orphée aux Enfers) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Mallika (Lakmé) in Rouen, Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro) in Versailles, Carmen in Grenoble, Poissy and Caluire, Marguerite (La Damnation de Faust) at the Théâtre du Châtelet and in Rouen, Ramiro (La finta giardiniera) and Dorabella (Così fan tutte) in Toulon, Amneris (Aida), Nicklausse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) and Fenena (Nabucco) in Grenoble, Maddalena (Rigoletto) in Limoges, Voix de la Mère (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) in Tokyo and Lyon, Dame Marthe (Faust) in Saint-Étienne, Clairon (Capriccio) and Madame Larina (Eugene Oneguin) in Metz and Reims, Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus) in Marseille, Hedwig (Les Fées du Rhin) in Tours and Bienne/Solothurn. Upcoming projects include Fenena in Marseille, the title role of La Nonne sanglante in Saint-Étienne, Dalila (Samson et Dalila) in Avignon, a recital with the harpsichordist Patrick Heilmann and his ensemble Le Songe du roi, Catarina in Fausto by Louise Bertin at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

Within just a few years, Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann has established herself as one of the leading sopranos of her generation. She feels as much at home on the operatic stage as she does on the lied and concert podiums and is acclaimed by audiences and critics alike for her exceptionally beautiful timbre and sensitive performances, most recently at the 2022 Salzburg Festival in a radiant Pamina (Die Zauberflöte). In the 2022/23 season she portrayed Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées), Dortmund and Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie) under the baton of Thomas Hengelbrock, sang Gilda (Rigoletto) in Basel and Fiorilla (Il turco in Italia) at the Staatsoper Hamburg. In 2020 she made her house and role debut at the Wiener Staatsoper as Adina in Otto Schenk’s legendary production of L’elisir d’amore. In past seasons, the young soprano sang Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Teatro alla Scala in Milano, Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) with Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Serpetta (La finta giardiniera) at the Staatsoper Berlin, Isolier (Le Comte Ory) opposite Cecilia Bartoli at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna as well as Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) with the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Opernhaus Zurich.  In summer 2021 she took over very short notice the role of Bellezza in Händel’s oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, alsongside Cecilia Bartoli, with enormous success at the Salzburg Festival.

Jean-François Lapointe is considered as one of the best baritones of his generation. Since his debut on stage in 1983, Jean-François Lapointe has sung on the main European stages (Paris, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Vienna, Zurich, Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Glasgow, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin, Liège, Toulouse...) as well as in North America and Asia. Critics are unanimous in their praise of his rich voice, the finesse of his interpretation and his stage qualities. His varied repertoire allows him to tackle many roles including Pelléas and Golaud (Pelléas et Mélisande), the title roles of Don Giovanni, Hamlet, Guillaume Tell and Eugene Onegin, Albert and the title role of Werther, Valentin (Faust), Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette), Lescaut (Manon), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Escamillo (Carmen), Nevers (Les Huguenots), Chorèbe (Les Troyens), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Ford (Falstaff), Giorgio Germont (La traviata), Posa (Don Carlo), Alphonse (La Favorite), Zurga (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Chevalier de la Force (Dialogues des carmélites). Jean-François Lapointe has participated in several recordings, including La Jolie Fille de Perth, Benvenuto Cellini, Le Mage, Ascanio, Iphigénie en Tauride, Ciboulette and Dialogues des Carmélites. Among his recent and future projects: Carmen (Escamillo) inMarseille, La traviata in Toulouse, Dialogues des carmélites in Rome and Iphigénie en Tauride in Zurich.

Mexican tenor Javier Camarena is the preeminent Mozart and bel canto specialist of his generation. Praised for his burnished tone, gleaming high notes, flawless coloratura and veracious portrayals, he regularly appears in leading roles alongside today’s foremost stars at the world’s top opera houses. In recent seasons, he showed his great diversity in opera roles and as a concert performer. At the Paris Opera, after his great success as Ernesto in Don Pasquale, he sang Arturo in I puritani and starred in highly acclaimed performances of La Fille du régiment. He made his longed-for debut at the Teatro Real in Madrid as Gualtiero in Il pirata, one of the most difficult tenor roles ever. He returned to the Zurich Opera House as Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, before also performing this role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Further concert engagements brought him to the Monte Carlo Opera, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Teatro Real and the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, to name only a few. He portrayed Alfredo (La traviata) at Monte Carlo Opera, Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) at the Metropolitan Opera, Tamino (The Magic Flute) at the Liceu, Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and in Bergamo, beginning a longstanding collaboration with the Donizetti Festival. He made his professional debut in 2004 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, as Tonio in La Fille du régiment. In 2007, he joined the ensemble of the Zurich Opera. Four years later, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, one of his signature roles.

Praised for his uniquely "noble voice" (Bachtrack), French tenor Julien Dran is widely considered one of the most refined vocal artists of his generation. His appearances as Nadir in The Pearlfishers, as Alfredo in La Traviata or in the title role of Gounod’s Faust are critically acclaimed renditions of rare depth and beauty. Julien Dran’s recent and upcoming season highlights include appearances as Nemorino in L’Elisir d’amore and as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at Opéra Québec, as Belmonte in Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail at Opéra Marseille, as Georges Brown in Boieldieu´s La Dame Blanche at Opéra de Limoges, as Artistée/Pluton in Orphée aux enfers at Opéra de Lausanne, appearances in the 2021 world premiere of Marc André Dalbavie’s opera Le Soulier de satin at Opéra de Paris, in Gounod’s Mireille and Bizet‘s Clovis et Clotilde, concert performances with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris under Hervé Niquet, and repeated appearances as Alfredo in La Traviata and Faust in Gounod’s Faust, at the Marseille, Toulouse, Vichy and Limoges Operas. His roles include Fenton at the Massy Opera, Matteo Borsa in Rigoletto at the 2013 Aix Festival, Lindoro (L’Italiana in Algeri), Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor), and Kudrias (Kátia Kabanová) at Avignon Opera; Ruodi (Guillaume Tell), Bénédict (Béatrice et Bénédict), and Antinoüs (Pénélope) at La Monnaie in Brussels; Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) at Centre Lyrique de Clermont Auvergne and Massy Opera; Matteo Borsa (Rigoletto) and the Count of Lerma (Don Carlos) at the Paris Opera; Alfred (Die Fledermaus) and Tebaldo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) at the Marseille Opera, Alfredo (La Traviata) with the Opéra Éclaté Company, the Young Horace (Salieri’s Les Horaces) at Versailles and Theater an der Wien with the Les Siècles orchestra, Gerald (Lakmé) at Tours Opera, and Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles) in Limoges and Reims. He also created the role of Tibère in the world premiere production of Dominique Gesseney-Rappo’s Carlotta ou la Vaticane at Fribourg Opera. Following his success at the Clermont-Ferrand International Singing Competition in 2009, he performed the role of Ferrando in Così fan tutte at the Centre Lyrique Clermont Auvergne. During the 2010/2011 season, he sang the role of Fenton in Falstaff at Metz Opera and participated in his first recording: Charpentier’s Didon. In 2012, he sang Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) at the Corte Festival and then sang the role of Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Bordeaux Opera and Edmondo in Manon Lescaut at the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels. In 2013 he sang the title role of Auber’s Fra Diavolo at the Limoges Opera. Julien Dran is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes. Among other awards, he won First Prize at the Gayarr Competition in Pamplona, Spain, under the presidency of Teresa Berganza. He won first prize in the male singer category at the “Paris Opera Awards” at Salle Gaveau in Paris in 2013. Julien Dran was born in Bordeaux, into a family of opera singers: His grandparents were tenor André Dran and Soprano Monique de Pondeau, his father tenor Thierry Dran, his mother the soprano Martine March. Julien began his musical education at a very early age. He studied piano and French horn then voice for two years at the Bordeaux Conservatory with Malcolm Walker, Pierre Catala and Lionel Sarrazin, and earned a residency at the CNIPAL National Centre for Opera Artists in Marseille for the 2007/2008 season. Julien Dran made his debut on stage at the Marseille Opera in the 2007/2008 season.

Singer/actor, actor/singer, Rodolphe Briand is as well-known as a stage actor as a singer in musicals and operas. His eclectic career led him to perform at leading opera houses:  Teatro Real de Madrid, La Scala in Milan, Opéra national de Paris, La Fenice in Venice, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Amsterdam Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opéra du Rhin, Opéra de Marseille… His favourite roles include Guillot de Morfontaine (Manon), the four servants (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), the Remendado (Carmen), Bardolfo (Falstaff), Schmidt (Werther), Spoletta (Tosca), Mime (Das Rheingold)… Operetta is another favourite field of this lover of words and notes (Ménélas in La Belle Hélène, Bilou in Le Chanteur de Mexico, John Styx in Orphée aux Enfers, Bababeck in the rare Barkouf by Offenbach…). He performs with leading conductors including Iván Fischer, Philippe Jordan, Daniel Oren, Pinchas Steinberg, Susanna Mälkki, and stage directors such as Calixto Bieito, Robert Carsen, Jérôme Deschamps, Jean-Louis Grinda, Benoît Jacquot, Olivier Py, Laurent Pelly and Mariame Clément. His recent and future projects include Werther at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and La Scala in Milan, La Périchole at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in Liège and Tours, La Vie parisienne in Limoges, Giuditta at Opéra du Rhin, Saint François d’Assise at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest and Orphée aux Enfers at the Capitole de Toulouse.

Thanks to his training both as an actor (at Rue Blanche, Paris) and a singer (at the Conservatoire de Paris and École d’art lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris) Jean-François Vinciguerra has enjoyed a career spanning thirty-seven years as an opera singer, actor and stage director. With more than sixty roles in his repertoire, he has been acclaimed at leading venues in France and abroad: Opéra-Bastille, Opéra-Comique, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Lausanne Opera, Baden-Baden Opera, Opéra royal de Wallonie (Liège), Seoul Arts Center, Siri Fort Auditorium (New Delhi), Teatro da Trindade (Lisbon), Nationale Reis Opera (Netherlands), KammerOper (Vienna), Festival Puccini di Torre del Lago, Operettszínház (Budapest), Chorégies d’Orange… He performed as Bartolo (The Barber of Seville), Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore), Méphistophélès (Faust), the four devils (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Capulet (Roméo et Juliette), Monterone (Rigoletto), Geronte (Manon Lescaut), the Sacristan (Tosca), Jupiter (Platée), as well as numerous roles in operettas, including Offenbach’s. At Opéra de Monte-Carlo he has performed in Andrea Chénier, Die Fledermaus, La Bohème and L’Homme de la Mancha. He will be directing The Merry Widow at the Festival lyrique d’Aix-les-Bains, and the premiere of a new wacky musical J’aim’pas le classique mais j’me soigne! with Éric Laugérias (July 2024), as well as the reprise of  Cherche piano aqueux pour jouer la Truite de Schubert at the Festival des trois coups in Jarnac (August 2024).