PHILIPPE HEBEISEN
Chairman of the Foundation Council
The 2025-2026 season of the Opéra de Lausanne is the second season of our new director, Claude Cortese. Largely composed of new productions and premieres in Lausanne, his program confirms the intentions already implemented during his first season: namely to show a wide audience works from the operatic repertoire that have never or rarely been performed at the Opéra de Lausanne. This objective is enhanced by the desire to open the doors of the opera house to cross-disciplinary collaborations with the city’s other cultural institutions, as well as to make the art of opera more accessible to all.
Our Opéra de Lausanne is doing well. After this successful leadership transition, the institution is confirming its important role in the city’s cultural life. In addition to its operatic heritage and tradition, it offers diversity, a platform for young artists, international exposure and even economic benefits.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest thanks to all the Opera’s staff for their passion and for the excellent welcome they have given our new director.
We are also very fortunate to enjoy the indispensable financial support of the City of Lausanne, the Canton of Vaud, patrons and private sponsors who continue to place their trust in us.
Finally, I would like to thank the members of our renewed Board of Trustees for the interest and time they devote to the good governance of our institution.
EDITORIALS - SEASON 2025-2026
CLAUDE CORTESE
Director
Dear Audience,
I am delighted to present my second season at the helm of the Opéra de Lausanne.
Since October 2024, many of you have come to discover works never previously presented in Lausanne: I’m very pleased about this and thank you for your confidence.
Once again this year, I’m keen to introduce audiences to the full breadth of the operatic repertoire. I want to continue in this ambitious vein: the first five opera productions will all be Lausanne premieres. As is now the tradition, the season will close with one of the most popular works in opera.
The 2025-2026 program will once again be marked by eclecticism and a journey through the great pages of Opera, from the baroque works of Georg Friedrich Handel to the post-romantic Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942), a major Austrian composer who will finally be making his entry into the Opéra de Lausanne repertoire.
Three of the six opera performances will be new productions, which we are sure will attract international audiences as well as local ones.
For the first time, the show dedicated to young audiences will be participatory.
Ballet will be back on our stage with a grand evening dedicated to Charlie Chaplin, a giant 20th-century figure whose destiny is closely bound up with our region.
Our theater is an ideal setting for evening recitals. Following on from Sabine Devieilhe’s memorable recital last November, we welcome the immense Michael Spyres, one of the most sought-after tenors of our time.
Finally, this year we will also be offering a concert version of an opera. Audiences in Lausanne will have the pleasure of seeing Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset in Ascanio in Alba. After Mitridate in 2024-2025, we will continue the cycle devoted to the young Mozart.
In the course of our productions, you will discover or re-discover singers of the very highest caliber. Our desire and ambition is to offer these artists – whether already internationally renowned or at the start of their careers – the ideal conditions for taking on important roles in Lausanne. In this way, the great names of today’s opera scene will rub shoulders with the stars of tomorrow.
Our loyal partners, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Sinfonietta de Lausanne and the HEMU Orchestra, will be guided by conductors of whom most will be making their debut in our theater.
On the directing side, we’ll be continuing our partnership with Bruno Ravella and Laurent Pelly, while exploring the world of Julie Depardieu and Richard Brunel. We will also be renewing our ties with artists who are regulars at our company, with the return of Olivier Py and Jean Liermier, as well as Mariame Clément, who made her Lausanne debut over 20 years ago.
All our outreach activities “around the show” were a great success in 2024-2025. We intend to develop these events further. In this way, we hope to reach out to all audiences, as well as link our opera house with a large number of Lausanne institutions that make our city an internationally recognized cultural capital.
I look forward to sharing new lyrical emotions with you and to seeing you again or getting to know you. I wish you a wonderful 2025/2026 season.
All the very best.
Opéra de Lausanne
A cultural institution located in the heart of Lausanne since 1871. It’s become an emblematic institution in French-speaking Switzerland, contributing to its cultural influence.
Since its renovation in 2012, the Opéra de Lausanne has equipped its stage with the most advanced technologies, and offers a diversified choice of operas, concerts and ballets each season, showcasing a repertoire that spans from the 17th to the 21st centuries, from Monteverdi to Levinas. This diversity, as well as the artistic and vocal level of its international singers, ensures a dynamism and recognition that confirms the Opéra de Lausanne’s renown, and is reinforced by the rebroadcasts and diffusion of its productions, which are often acclaimed.
The Opéra de Lausanne is also known for its annual programming of a true opera for young audiences. In addition to the discovery of the operatic world offered annually to more than 2,000 students, it has a proactive policy of professionally integrating young graduates of the HEMu and HEMGe. In 2010, the Opéra de Lausanne created the Lyric Road, a unique decentralisation operation that takes place in the summer in the French-speaking region and allows distant audiences to enjoy quality opera performances.
A Bit of History
In Lausanne, opera has long been a defining feature of the cultural scene, reflecting the desire of Lausanne’s citizens for theatre, and not just music.
Voltaire was already praising the curiosity of the Lausanne public and was delighted with the reception given to his theatrical works. In its new building, the modern Opéra de Lausanne, with the strength of its heritage, is dedicated to preserving the repertoire, as well as showcasing and commissioning works for a wide audience including its youngest fans.
The Choir
The Choir of the Opéra de Lausanne is a young choir, comprising both vocal students from the Hautes Ecoles de musique romandes, Hemu and HemGe, and professional singers.
The experience acquired at the Opéra de Lausanne often allows new graduates to pursue a career that at times brings them back to Lausanne. Its members are selected by audition and are periodically reheard. They are carefully chosen for each opera according to their voice and/or aptitudes, as well as their stage presence. With their contagious enthusiasm, they are highly appraised by invited Directors.
Members benefit from several years of training under the direction of a number of dynamic expert Choir Directors from different disciplines, who are selected according to the works performed and their specific qualities.
world-class performances and productions that are at the same time renewed and respectful of the operas presented.
Programming
Co-productions with other major theatres have made it possible to create spectacular scenographic productions allowing maximal use of the modern technical equipment installed when the theatre was renovated in 2012. The recognition of these productions is reflected both in the returning attendance of the public each season and in the co-production of a number of recordings, television broadcasts, and live streaming whether with Arte Concert, Mezzo, or the RTS.
Just as much a part of its area of activity, the Opéra de Lausanne encourages the writing and publishing of works dealing with Lausanne’s musical history over the past centuries. The editorial focus is combined with a strategy of commissioning operas from contemporary composers, such as Michaël Levinas, in order to spark and capture the interest of the young public in the operatic art.
