Act I

Act II

Act III

Couv_Samson_Et_Dalila_780x90611

Libretto

Anita Rachvelishvili en répétition de Carmen, Opéra Bastille, 2019 

CAR-33066-© E. Bauer - OnP

Portrait of Anita Rachvelishvili

Lightning streaks through the skies as Dalila declares her love to Samson in one of the finest arias of romantic opera. “My heart awakens to your voice like a flower to the kiss of dawn.” An enchanting yet treacherous beauty… When the thunder at last rumbles, Dalila betrays Samson and offers him up to his enemies: “Come up, for this time he has shown me all his heart”, she whispers to them in the night (The Old Testament, Book of Judges).Based on a violent and erotic biblical story, Saint-Saëns’s opera – composed in 1877, much to Liszt’s insistence – would not be performed at the Palais Garnier until fifteen years later. This first Parisian performance in 1892 included the hitherto unperformed “Dance Of The Priestesses”. Nevertheless, it became one of the most performed French operas in the world, together with Faust and Carmen.Conducted by Philippe Jordan, this new production brings back a repertoire masterpiece that has not been performed at the Paris Opera for twenty-five years.Ever sensational as a femme fatale, Anita Rachvelishvili plays the murderous Priestess in a production staged by Damiano Michieletto. The Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus A coproduction with the Metropolitan Opera, New YorkA co-production of the Paris Opera and Telmondis With the participation of ARTE France, with the support of the Orange Foundation, patron of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts, and with the assistance of the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée.Director: François-René Martin © Opéra national de Paris - Telmondis - 2016Picture: © Vincent Pontet / OnP

<ul><li>Dalila: A Philistine seeking revenge on Samson</li><li>Samson: A brave Hebrew, famous for his strength, leader of his people</li><li>The High Priest of dagon: High Priest of the Philistines</li><li>Abimelech: Satrap of Gaza, the administrative governor</li><li>An old Hebrew</li><li>A Philistine messenger</li><li>Two Philistines</li></ul>

Samson et Dalila

fr / en

Lightning streaks through the skies as Dalila declares her love to Samson in one of the finest arias of romantic opera. “My heart awakens to your voice like a flower to the kiss of dawn.” An enchanting yet treacherous beauty… When the thunder at last

Camille Saint-Saëns

Born in Paris on October 9, 1835, Camille Saint-Saëns showed an early gift for music. A child prodigy on piano, organ, and composition, he gave his first private recital at the age of four and a half (reported in the Moniteur Universel of August 1, 1840), and at eleven he performed in public at the Salle Pleyel. He entered the Conservatoire at the age of thirteen and won the first prize for organ in 1851. At the age of eighteen, he was appointed organist of the Saint-Merri church and created his first symphony. In 1857, he became titular of the Cavaillé-Coll organ at the church of La Madeleine, a position he held for twenty years. Liszt hailed Saint-Saëns as "the first organist in the world". From 1861 to 1865, he taught piano at the École Niedermeyer in Paris, where his students included Gabriel Fauré and André Messager. Although he failed twice in the Prix de Rome competition, he quickly became well known. As a composer, he distinguished himself in all fields: twelve operas, including La Princesse jaune (1872), Samson et Dalila (1877), Henri VIII (1883), Déjanire (1911), religious works, including a Messe solennelle and a Requiem, numerous oratorios, symphonic poems (Le Rouet d'Omphale, 1871; Phaéton, 1873; La Danse macabre, 1875), five symphonies, the last of which, called No. 3, with organ (1886), five piano concertos, three violin concertos and two for cello, chamber music, picturesque pieces (Le Carnaval des animaux, 1886), etc. In 1908, he was the first renowned composer to write a film score, for The Assassination of the Duke of Guise. In addition to his own compositional work, he collaborated in the publication of the works of Gluck, Beethoven, Liszt, Mozart and, in the 1870s, he wrote regularly in newspapers, including La Gazette musicale. In 1871, he founded the Société nationale de musique with Romain Bussine, Alexis de Castillon, Gabriel Fauré, César Franck, Louis Lalo. The society encouraged French music and created works by Saint-Saëns, Chabrier, Debussy, Dukas and Ravel. In 1886, he broke with the Société nationale de musique, because they decided to play foreign composers. In 1901, he was elected president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Polyglot, he has a taste for travel and travels the continents to give concerts and recitals, attend performances of his works and promote French music and culture. From 1873, he regularly visited Algeria and Egypt. He died in Algiers on December 16, 1921.

Anita Rachvelishvili made her debut at the Tbilisi Opera (the city of her birth). In 2007, she entered the La Scala Academy in Milan, where she was discovered by Daniel Barenboim. In 2009, the latter picked her to perform the title role in Carmen alongside Jonas Kaufmann. Soon thereafter, her career took on an international dimension. She made house debuts in the same role at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Seattle Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, the Rome Opera, the Verona Arena, and the Royal Opera House in London. She sang Dalila in a concert performance of Samson et Dalila at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and appeared as Dulcinea (Don Quichotte) at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Princess de Bouillon (Adriana Lecouvreur) at Carnegie Hall, Isabella (L’italiana in Algeri) at Milan’s La Scala, Amneris (Aida) at Milan’s La Scala and the Verona Arena, Liubacha (Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride) at the Berlin Staatsoper, Konchakovna, (Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production of Prince Igor) at the Metropolitan Opera, Verdi’s Requiem at Milan’s La Scala and the Salzburg Festival (conducted by Christian Thielemann), and Marfa (Khovanshchina) at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. After making her house debut at the Paris Opera in the role of Amneris (Aida) she was invited back to appear in Samson et Dalila, Carmen, Il Trovatore (Azucena), Don Carlo (Eboli), and Prince Igor (Konchakovna,). She also sang the title role of Carmen at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the Semperoper in Dresden, and the Athens Festival. She also sang Azucena at London’s Royal Opera House, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and the Vienna Staatsoper; Amneris at the 2017 Chorégies d’Orange, the Teatro Regio in Turin, and the Vienna Staatsoper; Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) at the Rome Opera and the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam; Amneris, Dalila and Princess de Bouillon at New York’s Metropolitan Opera; Dalila at the Monte Carlo Opera, and Princess de Bouillon at the Salzburg Festival.&nbsp;

Rachvelishvili.Anita.9

The Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko made his debut at the Riga Opera, where he sang the major roles in the repertoire (including Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Alfredo in La Traviata, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer, Ismaele in Nabucco, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Don José in Carmen and Cavaradossi in Tosca). In 2002, he won the Paul Sakss prize in Latvia. He then began an international career in the lyric spinto tenor repertoire. He made his French debut in 2005 at the Bordeaux Opera (Hermann in The Queen of Spades). He has sung at the Dresden Semperoper, (Cavaradossi, Otello), Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, (Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana), the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (where he notably sang Joseph Hagenbach in La Wally), the Royal Opera in Stockholm (Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut, Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West), the Oslo Opera (Des Grieux, Don José in Carmen, the Monte Carlo Opera (Turiddu), the Baden-Baden Festival (Cavaradossi), the Frankfurt Opera (Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra), the Bavarian State Opera, Munich (Ismaele), the Paris Opera (Otello), the Grand Théâtre, Geneva (Samson et Dalila), the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London (Luigi in Il Tabarro, Otello), and La Scala in Milan (Cavaradossi). He made his Salzburg Festival debut in 2008 in the title role of Otello under the baton of Riccardo Muti and he made his debut appearance at the Verona Arena in 2012 in Tosca. More recently, he sang Radames in Zurich, Riga and at the Paris Opera, Manrico (Il Trovatore) at the Staatsoper, Berlin under Daniel Barenboim, Calaf (Turandot) at Milan’s La Scala, and the Metropolitan Opera, Don José, Pollione, and Otello at the Metropolitan Opera, Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana), Canio (Pagliacci) and Des Grieux (Manon Lescaut) at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Samson at the Paris Opera, Dick Johnson and Cavaradossi at the Vienna Staatsoper and Otello in Zurich.

Aleksandrs Antonenko

Silins.Egils

Nicolas Testé was born in Paris and joined the Paris Opera’s opera training programme at its Centre de Formation Lyrique in 1997. In 1998, he was awarded second prize at the Voix Nouvelles (New Voices) competition. Since then, he has performed at some of Europe’s most prestigious opera houses and festivals. He has appeared in numerous productions at the Paris Opera and, in 2012, he made his debut at Milan’s La Scala. His repertoire of roles includes Jupiter (Castor et Pollux) at the Theater an der Wien, Leander (The Love for Three Oranges) in Geneva, Agamemnon (Iphigénie en Aulide) and Frère Laurent (Roméo et Juliette) in Amsterdam, Nourabad (Les Pêcheurs de perles) at the Opéra Comique, the Metropolitan Opera, the Palau de la Musica in Valencia and the Theater an der Wien, Cesare Angelotti (Tosca), Abimélech (Samson et Dalila), Don Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Marcel (Les Huguenots), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte) and Sir Giorgio (I Puritani) at the Paris Opera. He also sang in the world premiere production of Iain Bell’s A Harlot’s Progress at the Theater an der Wien, and played Colline (La Bohème) at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich; Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor) in Munich, Marseille, San Francisco, Berlin (Deutsche Oper), Turin and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; Des Grieux (Manon) at the Metropolitan Opera; Claudius, (Hamlet) in Avignon, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; Ferrando (Il Trovatore) and Dr. Grenvil (La Traviata) at the Chorégies d’Orange, Sir Giorgio (I Puritani) at the Teatro Real in Madrid, the four demonic roles in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Los Angeles Opera, Talbot (Maria Stuarda) in Zurich, Talbot, Mephistopheles (Faust), Alvise Badoero (La Gioconda) and Claudius (Hamlet) at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Hérod (L’Enfance du Christ) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Frère Laurent at Milan’s La Scala, and Talbot (Maria Stuarda) at the Zurich Opera. Nicolas Testé also performs in concert with the Orchestre national de France, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Accademia Santa Cecilia of Rome, the RAI Orchestra of Turin, the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestra National de Lille, and the Bayerischer Rundfunk, at venues like the Barbican Centre in London and Carnegie Hall in New York, under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Emmanuel Krivine, Sir Charles Mackerras, Marc Minkowski, Michel Plasson, Georges Prêtre, Pinchas Steinberg, and Dan Ettinger.

Testé Nicolas

Nicolas Cavallier is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London. He soon was making guest appearances at some of the world’s most prestigious opera venues performing the great roles of Mozart and Rossini (Don Giovanni, Figaro, Don Alfonso, Selim in Il turco in Italia, the Tutor in Le Comte Ory, Mustafa in L’Italiana in Algeri); the French repertoire (Escamillo, Arkel, Don Quixote, Mephistopheles, Nilakantha, the four demonic characters in Contes d’Hoffmann); the verist and Verdi repertoires (Scarpia, Philip II, Zaccaria); and German opera (The Dutchman, Orestes in Elektra, the King in Lohengrin). Since 2008, he has been performing the role of Don Quixote /Cervantes in the Leigh / Wasserman stage musical The Man of La Mancha. He has been invited to sing at Milan’s La Scala, Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, and in Venice, Vienna, Seattle, New York and Hong Kong. He has worked with numerous conductors, including Michel Plasson, Armin and Philippe Jordan, Marc Minkowski, Gary Bertini, Evelino Pidò, Emmanuel Krivine, Sir Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Alberto Zedda, and Pinchas Steinberg. Nicolas Cavallier has made several guest appearances at the Paris Opera where he recently played Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande), Frère Laurent (Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette) and the Old Hebrew (Samson et Dalila). His most recent roles include the Marquis de La Force (Dialogues des carmélites) in Brussels, Caen, Bologna, Turin and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; Méphistophélès (Faust) and Phanuel (Hérodiade) in Saint-Étienne; Nilakantha (Lakmé) at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, the Grand Mogol (Barkouf) at the Rhine Opera in Strasbourg, Arkel in Klagenfurt, and Don Iñigo Gomez (L’Heure espagnole) with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of François-Xavier Roth. Nicolas Cavallier has made numerous audio and video recordings, including Le Nozze di Figaro (title role) in a French version by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Carmen with John Eliot Gardiner, and the Olivier Py production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Projects: Walter Furst (Guillaume Tell) at the Chorégies d’Orange, the four demonic roles in the Contes d’Hoffmann and the title role in Rubinstein’s Le Démon at the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux; the High Priest of Odin (Sigurd) at the Lorraine Opera; the title role in Don Quixote at the Grand Théâtre in Tours; Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte) at the Rhine Opera in Strasbourg and Lescaut (Manon Lescaut) at the Lausanne Opera.

Cavallier.Nicolas

John Bernard performs in a wide repertoire, ranging from the Bel Canto to musicals. His repertoire includes Verdi’s Requiem with the Greenwich Choral Society, Henrik (A Little Night Music) at Light Opera Oklahoma and Lindoro (L’Italiana in Algeri) at Dicapo Opera Theatre in New York.He has performed on leading operatic stages, including the Théâtre du Châtelet, Glimmerglass Opera, Sarasota Opera, Utah Opera, El Paso Opera, Toledo Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Academy of Music, Jacksonville Lyric Opera, American Opera Projects, Ohio Light Opera, Maine Grand Opera, Boston Academy of Music and Longwood Opera, in roles such as Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Fenton (Falstaff), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet), Laurie (Little Women), Camille (The Merry Widow), Don Basilio (Le Nozze di Figaro), Fernando (Goyescas), Frederic (The Pirates of Penzance), Marco (The Gondoliers), Prince Hilarion (Princess Ida), John Box (Cox and Box de Sullivan), Perchik (Fiddler on the Roof).John Bernard has also performed oratorios (Judas in Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with the Saint Andrew’s Music Society and Rossini’s Little Solemn Mass at Saint Thomas’s Church on 5th Avenue). He has been invited to perform with numerous American orchestras and choruses and is a member of the Paris Opera Chorus.At the Paris Opera: La Bohème (Parpignol), 2013; La Traviata (Giuseppe), 2018; Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (the Coachman), 2019 ; Peter Grimes (Lawyer), 2023&nbsp;

BERNARD John

Luca Sannai obtained his singing diploma at the Sassari Music Conservatoire, under Joan Logue and Gianni Mastino. He followed many masterclasses to study conducting, counterpoint, Gregorian chant and vocal technique.The 2003 winner of the competition for resident tenor at the National Opera of Cagliari, he worked there until 2013 as an artist of the Chorus. He was also a finalist at the 2008 TIM Competition in Verona and won third prize at the Rolando Nicolos Competition in Rome.His repertoire includes, among others, Tamino (The Magic Flute), Alfredo (La Traviata), Rodolfo (La Bohème), the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Giaele (Primarosa by Pietri). On the concert platform, he sang Schubert’s Mass in G major, Mozart’s Requiem, Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater, St John’s Passion, by Bach, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, Charpentier’s Te Deum, Rossini’s Little Solemn Mass... Since 2013 he has been a resident tenor at the Paris Opera Choruses.In addition to his singing activities, he is also a chorus conductor: from 1996 to 2014, he conducted the Coro Polifonico Turritano Porto Torres, with which he won thrice the first place and four times the second place in national and international competitions.From 1998 to 2007, he co-directed with Giovanni Acciai the Porto Torres International Polyphony Festival Voci d’Europa, and was then the unique artistic director of the festival from 2008 to 2015. In 2014, he founded VIBES, a professional ensemble gathering singers from seven different countries and offering a repertoire based on the different cultural horizons of its members.At the Paris Opera: Boris Godunov (a Boyar), 2018 ; Il Trovatore (a messenger), 2018 ; La Traviata (Giuseppe), 2019 ; Wozzeck (tenor), 2022

luca sannai nb

Jian-Hong Zhao was born in Datong in China. He began his career singing traditional Chinese opera in Datong. He studied theatre and music at the Theatre Institute in Beijing then went to on to the Conservatoire of Shanghai to pursue his musical studies. He began his operatic career as a soloist with Shanghai Opera. He completed his studies in Europe at the École Normale in Paris where the jury was unanimous in awarding him prizes for singing and interpretation. Whilst pursuing his career as a soloist, in 2000 he joined the Paris Opera Chorus.

Zhao

Coming from an artistic Swiss family, Philippe Jordan’s is regarded as one of the most established and important conductors of our time. He has been appointed Music Director of the Wiener Staatsoper beginning in September 2020. 
Jordan started his career at the age of 20 as musical director at Theater Ulm. In 1998 he became assistant to Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera. From 2001-2004 he was principal conductor of Graz Opera and the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra. During this period he also debuted at several of the world’s leading opera houses and festivals, for example the Metropolitan Opera New York, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Bavarian State Opera, the Wiener Staatsoper and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and the festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne and Salzburg. From 2006-2010 Jordan returned to the Berlin State Opera as principal guest conductor. During this time he also appeared regularly in his hometown at the Zurich Opera. In the summer of 2012 Philippe Jordan debuted at the Bayreuth Festival. In Summer 2021, Philippe Jordan will leave his post as musical director of the Opéra national de Paris, which he has helmed since 2009. During his time as musical director in Paris he has conducted numerous premieres and revivals, including Moses und Aaron, La Damnation de Faust, Der Rosenkavalier, Samson et Dalila, Lohengrin, Don Carlos (French original version), Benvenuto Cellini, Bérénice and Les Troyens, Don Giovanni and the new production of Borodin’s Prince Igor. In his last season as musical director at Opéra national de Paris he will conduct Wagner’s “Ring” cycle in a concert version. 
As a symphonic conductor, Philippe Jordan has conducted the world’s most famous orchestras. He has also been principal conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker from 2014 to 2020. Together with the orchestra he has developed complete cycles of Schubert’s symphonies and Beethoven’s symphonies and piano concerti, and a cycle of J. S. Bach’s major masses and oratorios. In a three-part Bruckner project at the Wiener Musikverein, he performed the composer’s seventh, eighth and ninth symphonies in a contrast-filled dialogue with modern classics by Kurtág, Ligeti and Scelsi. For the Beethoven anniversary year, he also performed a reconstruction of the legendary Grand Concert of 22 December 1808 with performances in Paris and Vienna. 
His recording work with the Paris Opera Orchestra includes discs of Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie, Stravinski’s The Rite of Spring, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s and Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies.

Born in Venice, Italy, Damiano Michieletto made his international debut at the Wexford Festival in 2003. In 2012, he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with La Bohème and returned there for Falstaff in 2013, La Cenerentola in 2014 and Alcina in 2019.His productions include La gazza ladra and La Scala di seta at the Pesaro Festival, Lucia di Lammermoor, Il Corsaro, Luisa Miller and Poliuto in Zurich, Roméo et Juliette, the Mozart / Da Ponte cycle, The Rake’s Progress, The Magic Flute, Aquagranda,The Merry Widow, Macbeth, Rigoletto and the world premiere of Baruffe at La Fenice, Venice, Il Serraglio in Naples, Madama Butterfly in Turin, L’elisir d’amore in Valencia, Graz and Madrid, Un ballo in maschera, La Scala di seta and Falstaff at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Luisa Miller, Rigoletto and La Damnation de Faust in Rome, Il viaggio a Reims at the Dutch National Opera, Così fan tutte and Don Pasquale at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Jenůfa, Cendrillon and Orfeo ed Euridice in Berlin, Idomeneo, The Barber of Seville and Alcina in Florence, Guillaume Tell, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, Don Pasquale at Royal Opera House Covent Garden.These last seasons, he staged Kátia Kabanová in Glyndebourne and Copenhague, Der Rosenkavalier in Vilnius and Brussels, Bernstein’s Mass in Rome, Béatrice et Bénédict in Lyon and Genoa, Salomé in Milan, Giulio Cesare in Egitto at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and in Leipzig, the world premiere of Raskatov’s Animal Farm in Amsterdam, Aida in Munich, The Tales of Hoffmann in Sydney.For the theatre, he staged Goldoni’s Il ventaglio, Gogol’s The Government Inspector and Tchekov’s A Marriage Proposal / The Bear at Teatro Stabile del Veneto, Ramón Maria del Valle-Inclán’s Divinas palabras and Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera at Piccolo Teatro in Milan. He also directed the movie Gianni Schicchi for Genoma Films and the opera-movie Rigoletto al Circo Massimo for Indigo Film.At the Paris Opera: The Barber of Seville, 2014; Samson et Dalila, 2016; Don Pasquale, 2018

Paolo Fantin was born in Castelfranco and earned a degree in scenography and stagecraft from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.In 2004, he began collaborating with Damiano Michieletto. In 2011, his sets for Madame Butterfly (Turin’s Teatro Regio), Sigismondo (Pesaro’s Rossini Festival) and Don Giovanni (Venice’s La Fenice) earned him the coveted Franco Abbiati Music Critics’ Prize. In 2005, he designed the sets for the world premiere production of Marco Tutino’s Beauty and the Beast in Modena. Still with Damiano Michieletto, he created the scenography for La Gazza ladra (Pesaro Festival, which earned the 2008 Abbiati Prize for staging), Nino Rota’s Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze (Genoa), Michael Daugherty’s Jackie O (Lugo Opera Festival), Das Land des Lächelns (Trieste), Lucia di Lammermoor, Il Corsaro, Luisa Miller, Poliuto (Zurich), Romeo and Juliet (La Fenice), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Naples), La Scala di seta (Pesaro Festival, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia), Sigismondo and La Donna del lago (Pesaro), Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte (La Fenice), Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Geneva’s Grand Théâtre), Madama Butterfly (Turin), L’elisir d’amore (Valencia, Madrid), Così fan tutte (sets and costumes, Tokyo), Martinů’s The Greek Passion (Palermo), Il trittico (Theater an der Wien, Copenhagen Opera), La Bohème, Falstaff (Salzburg Festival), Un ballo in maschera (Milan’s La Scala), The Rake’s Progress (Leipzig Opera), Guillaume Tell, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci (London’s Royal Opera House), Otello (Theater an der Wien), Cinderella (Berlin’s Komische Oper), Samson et Dalila, Don Pasquale (Paris Opera), Aquagranda (a world premiere production by Filippo Perocco) and Die Lustige Witwe (Venice’s La Fenice), Il viaggio a Reims and Rigoletto (Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam), Die Zauberflöte (Florence and Venice), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theater an der Wien), La Donna del lago (the Royal Opera of Wallonia), and Der ferne Klange (Frankfurt). Paolo Fantin has also worked in Italy with Stefano Patarino on Britten’s The Little Sweep, Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, and with Paolo Valerio on the play Sette piani, based on the work by Buzzati. He also paired up with Andrea Bernard for La Scala di seta.Projects: Alcina at the Salzburg Festival.

Born in Rome, Alessandro Carletti studied photography and painting. He very soon discovered his passion for lighting design and had his first experiences with the productions directed by Carmelo Bene at the Teatro Eliseo. In the late 1990s he started working at the Rossini Opera Festival. He collaborates regularly with director Damiano Michieletto.Among other works, his productions include Il Trittico (Theater an der Wien), Don Carlo (Wiener Staatsoper), Cavalleria Rusticana (Teatro San Carlo, Naples), Ballo in Maschera (Teatro La Scala), Il Viaggio A Reims (De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam), Guillaume Tell and an evening Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci at Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Rigoletto (Amsterdam and La Fenice, Venice), Aquagranda (La Fenice, Venice), Alcina (Salzburg Festival) and Aida (Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich).Other major works include La Damnation de Faust, Luisa Miller, The Merry Widow, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Don Pasquale, Béatrice et Bénédict, Jenůfa, Katia Kabanova, Der Rosenkavalier, Giulio Cesare, Leonard Bernstein’s Mass and Alexander Raskatov’s Animal Farm. He works regularly with director Barrie Kosky: Sémélé, Candide, La Bohème, Der Rosenkavalier, Turandot and Dialogues with the Carmelites.He also worked on La Pucelle d’Orléans with director Lotte de Beer at Theater an der Wien, Nabucco with directors ricci/forte at the Verdi Festival in Parma, Lucrezia Borgia and I Capuleti e i Montecchi with director Silvia Paoli, Rigoletto in Palermo in collaboration with stage director and filmmaker John Turturro and Bluebeard’s Castle / Il Tabarro in Rome with diretor Johannes Erath.He won the Knight of Illumination Award 2015 for the opera Guillaume Tell, production of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. At the Paris Opera: Samson et Dalila, 2016; Don Pasquale, 2018

Born in Buenos Aires and of Italo-Argentian nationality, José Luis Basso studied piano and orchestral conducting at the University of his hometown. He was appointed Chorus Master at the Teatro Argentino in La Plata where he spent four years preparing operatic and choral works. In 1987, a grant permitted him to pursue his studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. In 1989, he took up the post of Chorus Master at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. That same year, he conducted the chorus of the Buenos Aires Wagner Association and in 1994, he became assistant to the celebrated Chorus master at La Scala Milan, Romano Gandolfi. He was then appointed Chorus Master at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples where he brought to the Opera Chorus a new dynamism, his conducting of Lohengrin and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony attracting considerable acclaim. In 1996, he joined the Maggio Musicale Fiorentine where he prepared the choir for Parsifal conducted by Semyon Bychkov, Turandot with Zubin Mehta and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for which he received the INA-Assitalia Galileo Prize for young conductors 2000. In April 2001, he accompanied the Orchestra and Chorus to Tokyo for the inauguration of the “Italy in Japan 2001” event. He has made a number of recordings for Decca including Turandot, La Bohème, Tosca and Aroldo. As chorus master, he has been invited to the Shanghai Opera, the Mariinski Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Lyon Opera for Aïda and Carmina Burana. In 2003, he won a Grammy Award with the Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the soprano Renée Fleming for the album Bel Canto. In the course of the last two decades, he has worked alongside many of the world’s leading conductors: Zubin Mehta, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Georges Prêtre, Antonio Pappano, Seiji Ozawa, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Carlo Maria Giulini, Myung-Whun Chung, Peter Schreier, Bruno Bartoletti, Rafael Frühbeck De Burgos, Semyon Bychkov, Daniel Oren, Valery Gergiev, Stéphane Denève, Jordi Savall, Fabio Luisi, Marc Piollet, Pinchas Steinberg, Michael Boder, Sebastian Weigle, Gerd Albrecht and Josep Pons. From 2004 to 2014 he was Chorus Master and Artistic Consultant at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelone. Since September 2014 he has been Chorus Master of the Paris Opera.

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