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Opéra national de Lyon 2018-2019

The Lyon Opera always displays a thoughtful, intelligent and incredibly relevant program. Few theaters build their seasons on a theme.

 

In 2018-2019, Life and destinies will be at the heart of the Festival, a must-see event in March. Three productions are then proposed and most interesting because for example, The Enchantress, Tchaikovsky’s operawill be played for the first time in France. Dido and Aeneas by Purcell and Il Ritorno by Ulisse in Patria by Monteverdi are two magnificent masterpieces that serve the purpose perfectly.

 

The 2018-2019 season is marked by discoveries and major opera titles. Nabucco by Verdi is offered in concert version but the distribution compensates all staging. The great baritone Leo Nucci faces a superb soprano that knowledgeable music lovers already know, Anna Pirozzi. Händel’s Rodelinda is one of the famous works of the composer, however rarely played. The production is entrusted to Claus Guth. It is also nice to be able to applaud a poorly known opera. Boito’s Mefistofele is nevertheless a masterpiece, a gigantic fresco with an inspired stage director like Alex Ollé.

 

Krzysztof Warlikowski, a strong personality of the opera scene, has been entrusted with the production of a very powerful work, From the House of the Dead by Janácek. Amongst the expected discoveries, Romeo und Julia, a German opera created in 1943 by Boris Blacher. Georges Benjamin offers the premiere to the Opéra national de Lyon of the French creation of his new opera, Lessons in Love and Violence. The beloved baritone Stéphane Degout and the talented director Katie Mitchell are part of the crew. Finally, the 2018-2019 season of the Opéra de Lyon ends with an operetta by Offenbach, a Blue-Beard ineludibly jolly because it is the director Laurent Pelly to whom we owe so much success who directs the scene.

 

We must also mention the superb Opera Ballet of Lyon which invites as usual, the finest choreographers like Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham or Jirí Kylián. But the big event is the return of the Cinderella that Maguy Marin created here, 30 years ago. With the concerts and recitals of Véronique Gens, Felicity Lott and Krystian Zimerman, you have to book your tickets for the beautiful season of the Opéra de Lyon 2018-2019 without delay.