Gluck | News Music & Opera

The Opéra-Comique ends its season in Hell with Faust!

admin_mowp — Tue, 27 May 2025 12:28:03 +0000

The 2024–2025 season is drawing to a close at the Opéra-Comique, and it promises to leave a lasting impression. From June 21 to July 1, 2025, the iconic Parisian institution will stage Faust, Charles Gounod’s dramatic masterpiece, in a unique and rarely performed format. Indeed, Denis Podalydès‘ staging is based on the original version with spoken dialogues—the true Opéra-Comique version.

Audiences will also have the chance to rediscover some of the opera’s lesser-known pages, brought to life by a stellar cast led by the much-anticipated tenor Julien Dran and soprano Vannina Santoni.

A familiar face at the Opéra-Comique, baritone Jérôme Boutillier—named ADAMI Revelation of the Year in 2016—returns to the stage as the devil’s emissary, Méphistophélès. Originally trained as a pianist, Boutillier first made his mark in 2018 when he stepped in at the last minute to perform the role of Luddorf in Gounod’s La Nonne sanglante, also at the Opéra-Comique. His acclaimed performance earned him public recognition. Seven years later, he returns to the same venue in another devilishly demanding role—a return to his roots and a true delight in store for the Parisian audience eagerly awaiting him.

This new Faust production, a co-production with the Opéra de Lille and the Palazzetto Bru Zane, brings the Opéra-Comique’s season to a close. Also on the program: Gluck’s L‘Île de Merlin ou Le Monde renversé, to be performed on June 24, 26, and 28, 2025—a fantastical, satirical tale, reimagined by Myriam Marzouki for the Opéra-Comique Academy.

To attend the last performances of the Opera-Comique’s season, click here!

And to discover the new Opera-Comique’s season, it’s here!

Performance of Faust – c – Opéra-Comique

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Voltaire and Rameau Lose Their Hair at the Comique!

admin_mowp — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 09:52:25 +0000

Since this summer, music lovers have known that Voltaire aspired to provide Rameau with an opera libretto about Samson, the well-known biblical figure famous for his complicated history with the temptress Delilah, who cut his hair. Unfortunately, royal censorship refused to allow this sacred story to be staged in an opera (something Saint-Saëns would achieve years later with the success we all recognize). Rameau, who had already begun composing the music, was forced to abandon his opera and later repurposed his score in other works.

Voltaire is said to have told the composer: “I propose that we start a revolution together, for opera today has lost itself in the corridors of entertainment. It must allow us to read the world, to ask great questions.”

For Raphaël Pichon, the reason for the censorship is encapsulated in the final verses of Act III: “People, rise up. People, awaken. People, break your chains. Fight for your freedom.” On July 4, 2024, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché in Aix-en-Provence (and not on July 14, the day of the storming of the Bastille), the brilliant conductor Raphaël Pichon unearthed a score that he had completely reworked for the world premiere of this Samson by Jean-Philippe Rameau, set to a libretto by Voltaire.

After its great critical and public success, Claus Guth’s production is now scheduled in Paris at the Opéra-Comique from March 17 to 23, 2025. While Jarrett Ott reprises his role as Samson from Aix, the Opéra-Comique presents a refreshed cast, with Ana Maria Labin as the new Delilah. She joins Julie Roset as Timna and Mirco Palazzi as Achisch, alongside the young and immensely talented singers Camille Chopin and Laurence Kilsby.

The Opéra-Comique has no intention of touching one hair on Raphaël Pichon, whose dynamism as a conductor has worked wonders more than once in this ideal acoustic setting. Let us recall the successes of Orphée et Eurydice by Gluck, Ercole Amante by Cavalli, Hippolyte et Aricie by Rameau, Fidelio by Beethoven, and Lakmé by Delibes, as well as Miranda, a pasticcio based on a work by Purcell, and Un Autre Voyage, inspired by Schubert’s operas— all conducted masterfully by Raphaël Pichon, a regular at the house!

To go seeing Raphaël Pichon conducting, click here !

Opera Comique & Raphaël Pichon – c – Stefan Brion & Piergab

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Cecilia Bartoli Has Lost Her Love

admin_mowp — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 09:00:48 +0000

Currently on tour, Cecilia Bartoli cannot stop mourning her lost love as she embodies Orpheus in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. She will perform the role on two last upcoming dates: at the Philharmonie de Paris on Thursday, November 28, 2024, and at the Tonhalle in Zurich on November 30. This season, the great mezzo-soprano, is making fewer stage appearances as she dedicates herself to her roles as Artistic Director of the Salzburg Easter Festival and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, where she will appear as Sesto in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito in January 2025. However, la Bartoli hasn’t forgotten her charitable commitments. She will give a special performance at a benefit concert for the International Opera Studio in Zurich on June 15, 2025.

Find all the dates of Cecilia Bartoli

Bartoli Cecilia (c) Cecilia Bartoli’s Website

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Iphigenia in Tauris, in Aulis, but especially in Athens and Antwerp

admin_mowp — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 11:03:27 +0000

As the International Opera Awards 2024 have just recognized Dmitri Tcherniakov‘s production, created at the Aix Festival this summer, as Best New Production, Iphigenia seems to be in vogue. Indeed, Iphigénie en Aulide and Iphigénie en Tauride, the two operas by Gluck, are currently on stage (from October 10 to 30, 2024) at the Greek National Opera in the same award-winning production with almost the same cast, featuring Corinne Winters, Véronique Gens, Stanislas de Barbeyrac, and Alexandre Duhamel.

Next, Iphigénie en Tauride alone will take the stage at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, at the Antwerp Opera from October 25 to November 5, 2024. Benjamin Bayl will conduct the production directed by Rafael R. Villalobos, with Michèle Losier, Kartal Karagedik, and Reinoud Van Mechelen in the main roles.

Link to book your tickets for Iphigénie en Tauride at Antwerp

Iphigénie en Tauride – Montpellier Opéra-Comédie © Marc Gino

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Comeback of Lully after Gluck at the Opéra Comique

admin_mowp — Thu, 16 May 2024 08:00:59 +0000

The terrible Armide has inspired many opera composers of genius. The Opéra Comique welcomes the heroine back from 17 to 25 June 2024, but it’s not the same music. Music lovers who heard Gluck‘s Armide last season will be able to draw comparisons with Lully‘s Armide, with the same libretto by Philippe Quinault and the same sets by Bruno de Lavenère. Director Lilo Baur is back at it again, with a different score and a completely new cast. Ambroisine Bré and Cyrille Dubois take on the roles of Armide and Renaud under the eagerly awaited direction of the great specialist Christophe Rousset at the helm of his Talens Lyriques.

Discover Armide by Lully at the Opéra Comique

Armide © Opera Comique website

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Oh bienheureuse Iphigenia!

admin_mowp — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 10:10:08 +0000

It seems that Iphigénie en Tauride, one of Gluck‘s great masterpieces, is enjoying a revival. After several fine productions, it is now the Opéra Comédie de Montpellier that is hosting the lyrical tragedy from 19 to 23 April 2023, directed by Rafael R. Villalobos. After the great success of Hamlet at the Opéra national de Paris, Pierre Dumoussaud is the orchestral director with a vocal cast that brings together Vannina Santoni as Iphigénie and her brother Orestes performed by Jean-Sébastien Bou and above all the young tenor, a hope of French singing, Valentin Thill.

Find your tickets here

(c) Opéra Orchestre national de Montpellier / Lim Kiihwan / Trafik

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Marie-Nicole Lemieux twice an enchantress

admin_mowp — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 09:00:05 +0000

While the Chorégies d’Orange is focusing on her Carmen this summer, Marie-Nicole Lemieux will first enchant the Philharmonie de Paris on 9 January 2023, with the ensemble Les Épopées (then on 11 January at Bozar in Brussels). They present their new programme entitled ‘Enchantress’, in which the superb mezzo tackles the great tragic heroines such as Médée, Circé or Armide by performing highlights from operas by Lully, Charpentier, Leclair, Gluck, etc.

Your tickets here

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The Gluck Renaissance, already back!

admin_mowp — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 08:00:13 +0000

A real craze or a coincidence of the calendar, it seems that Gluck’s operas are arousing new interest in Paris. After Jakub Józef Orliński‘s magnificent Orfeo (at the TCE), and Julien Chauvin‘s surprising and successful exhumation of Iphigénie en Aulide (at Soissons and at the TCE), there are two titles soon to be performed that confirm a Gluck Renaissance.

On Friday 21 October 2022, the Opéra Royal de Versailles will present a concert version of Echo et Narcisse with Adriana González and Cyrille Dubois. Music lovers who like thrills will go to the Opéra Comique, which is putting on a string of exciting productions. After Sabine Devieilhe’s Lakmé, Véronique Gens takes on the role of the magician Armide in Gluck’s great masterpiece, which will be performed at the Salle Favart from 5 to 15 November 2022.

Find your tickets of Armide here

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Towards the Gluck Renaissance ?

admin_mowp — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 08:00:42 +0000

Julien Chauvin, the Concert de la Loge and the Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, in partnership with the CMBV, are mobilising to revive C. W. Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide, first in Soissons (on 2 October 2022 at the Cité de la musique et de la danse de Soissons as part of the Laon Festival) and then at the Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées on 7 October.

The concert version offers the complete score of the opera, a major work of French lyrical history at the crossroads of the classical and pre-romantic styles, with an enchanting cast including Judith Van Wanroij, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Cyrille Dubois, Tassis Christoyannis, Jean-Sébastien Bou and David Witczak.
After the Rossini and Vivaldi renaissances, the premises for Gluck?

Tickets for the 7th of october

Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles (c) Festival de Laon

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