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showing an unexpected loyalty to Handel: the composer who introduced Italian opera to England. In the Spring of 1735 Handel was in conflict with a rival company and on the verge of bankruptcy, but he achieved a resounding success with his opera Alcina. With a libretto based on Ariosto’s popular romance, a story full of fantastic scenes and surprises, Handel has never brought a more profound humanity to his characters, especially in their romantic misadventures. The beautiful melodies in this score have stood the test of time, and have now been restored to their original brilliance by Diego Fas.
supports the choir of the Opéra de LausanneDiego Fasolis began his career as a concert organist before turning to conducting. A regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, he conducts Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Musikverein with the Vienna Concentus Musicus and the Arnold Schönberg Choir. La Scala entrusts him with the creation of an orchestra playing on period instruments, which he then conducts in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. In Milan, he also conducted Tamerlano with Plácido Domingo. With over 120 CDs released by major international labels such as EMI-Virgin, Naïve, Universal Music and Warner Classics, Diego Fasolis has received numerous awards for his commitment to rediscovering the operatic repertoire: the Disco d’Oro, the Grand Prix du Disque for his work on Handel and Vivaldi, and the Echo Klassik for Leonardo Vinci’s opera Artaserse. In 2014 and 2015, he was nominated for two Grammy Awards for the triumphant “Mission” project with works by Agostino Steffani and the “Saint Petersburg” project with Cecilia Bartoli. To mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s death, he recorded Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony with I Barocchisti in Lugano for Arte. In 2019, Diego Fasolis was named Conductor of the Year at the International Opera Awards. Recent and future engagements include Bach’s St. John Passion in Stuttgart, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena in Lugano, Reggio Emilia, Modena and Piacenza, and Vivaldi’s Tamerlano at La Fenice.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Faramondo (2009), Rinaldo (2011), Farnace (2011), L’Artaserse (2012), Dorilla in Tempe (2014), Die Zauberflöte (2015), Ariodante (2016), La clemenza di Tito (2018), Orphée et Eurydice (2019), Meyerbeer’s Gli amori di Teolinda (2019), Alcina (2022), I Barocchisti (Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) (2023) and Norma (2023)
In search of a rigorous aesthetic and conceptual unity for a theater founded on all the arts, Stefano Poda has always developed his own language, combining the functions of director, set and costume designer, lighting designer and choreographer. He has directed over a hundred productions worldwide, including : the opening of the Verona Arena Centenary Festival in the summer of 2023, with a new production of Verdi’s Aida, broadcast worldwide (with a record 12,000 spectators at 13 performances, to be repeated in the 2024 and 2025 seasons); the opening of the Pesaro Rossini Festival 2023 with the first modern performance in the critical edition of Eduardo e Cristina; the launch of the 2023/24 season at Turin’s Teatro Regio with Halévy’s La Juive, which was awarded the Prix Abbiati 2024, the highest distinction of Italian critics; Enesco’s Œdipe at the 2023 Enesco Festival in Bucharest; Rusalka (2022) at the Capitole in Toulouse and in Tel Aviv (2024); the new production of Tosca (2021) at the Bolshoi in Moscow; Nabucco for the inauguration of the National Theater of Korea in 2021 and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (2020, 2022); Romeo and Juliet (2018, 2024) at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing; Boris Godounov (2017) and Andrea Chénier (2015) at the Korean National Opera; L’elisir d’amore in Strasbourg (2016); Otello in Budapest (2015); Tristan und Isolde at the opening of the 77th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. His Faust (2015), Turandot (2018) and Thaïs at Turin’s Teatro Regio, have been shown in cinemas worldwide. In 2019, he receives the Prix Claude Rostand for his production of Dukas’s Ariane et Barbe-Bleue at the Capitole de Toulouse.
At Opéra de Lausanne: Ariodante and Faust (2016), Lucia di Lammermoor (2017), Les contes d’Hoffmann (2019), Alcina (2022) and Norma (2023)
The Dutch soprano has been leading a brilliant international career in opera and concert for several years now, inviting her to the main stages of the world – Scala in Milan, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival… Among her current engagements, we can mention: Madame Herz in Mozart’s Schauspieldirektor, Marguerite de Valois in Les Huguenots and projects around Elizabeth I of England and bel canto at La Monnaie in Brussels, a stage version of Bach’s St. John Passion at Châtelet, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and Strauss Lieder with the Hague Residence Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Munich Philharmonic, excerpts from Così fan tutte (Fiordiligi) in concert version at the Schlosstheater in Potsdam, as well as Handel’s Il delirio amoroso with the Spanish National Orchestra in Madrid.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Lucia de Lammermoor (2017) and Gli amori di Teolinda by Meyerbeer (2019).
A star in the countertenor world, Franco Fagioli stands out for the quality of his interpretations, the beauty of his voice and the excellence of his technique, which allows him to span three octaves. Highlights of his 2021/22 season include: Arsace in Handel’s Partenope in his debut at the Teatro Real in Madrid (where he has already been invited back for Achille in Sciro and Mitridate, re di Ponto), Nerone in Agrippina at the Hamburg Staatsoper, and his participation in a new production of Giulio Cesare at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. He has also recorded Mozart arias with the Kammerorchester Basel and will tour Europe with this program. In the future, Franco Fagioli will take part in a new production of Alessandro nell’Indie at the Bayreuth Baroque Festival, will tour Ariodante with Il Pomo d’Oro, and will conduct various projects around the “last castrato” Giovanni Velluti.
Lausanne-based soprano Marie Lys trained at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne and then at the Royal College of Music in London. First prize winner at the Cesti Baroque Opera Competition (2018) and the Vincenzo Bellini Belcanto Competition (2017), she has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Diego Fasolis, Christophe Rousset, Fabio Biondi, Leonardo García Alarcón, Emmanuelle Haïm and Michel Corboz. She has also performed with orchestras such as Europa Galante, Les Talens Lyriques, Sinfonia Varsovia, The English Concert, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Cameristi della Scala and Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco. She has sung the roles of Ginevra (Ariodante) and Adelaide (Lotario) at the Handel Festival in Göttingen, Dorinda (Orlando) at the Castell Festival in Peralada, Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Yniold (Pelléas et Mélisande) and Clorinda (La Cenerentola) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and recently replaced Cecilia Bartoli at the last minute in the title role of Handel’s Alcina at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. She has played the role of Bellezza in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno alongside Biondi in Granada, and the title role in Donizetti’s Betly for the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw. She will soon appear in Vivaldi’s Tamerlano during an Italian tour conducted by Ottavio Dantone, as well as in Lully’s Thésée at the Theater an der Wien, at the Bozar in Brussels and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées under the baton of Christophe Rousset. Marie was supported in her debut by the Migros Culture Percentage and the Leenaards, Dénéréaz, Colette Mosetti and Friedl Wald, Samling, Drake Calleja Trust and Josephine Baker Trust foundations.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Orlando paladino (2017), La sonnambula (2018), Die Fledermaus (2018), Orpheus and Eurydice (2019), Alcina (2022) and Candide (2022).
After a flute diploma, Marina Viotti tried her hand at jazz, gospel, heavy metal and, with a diploma of high literary studies (hypokhâgnes) in her pocket, moved to Vienna to begin studying opera singing with Heidi Brunner in 2011. In 2013, she joins Brigitte Balleys’ class at the HEMU, where she obtains a master’s degree as a soloist. She then perfected her skills in belcanto with Raúl Gimenez in Barcelona. Elected in 2019 “Best young singer of the year” at the International Opera Awards, she won numerous prizes in different competitions: finalist of the Operalia competition in 2018, 3rd prize of the Geneva Competition in 2016, 1st prize of the Kattenburg competition in Lausanne in 2017, international belcanto prize at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad in 2015.
Her important operatic roles include: Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at the Bolshoi, Mélibéa (Il viaggio a Reims) and Nicklausse/La Muse (Les contes d’Hoffmann) at the Liceu in Barcelona; Arsace (Aureliano in Palmira) and Isabella (L’Italiana in Algeri) at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad and then at the Lucerne Theatre, where she also sang the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein and Elisabetta (Marie Stuart); Stéphano (Romeo and Juliet) at La Scala, Rosina and Olga (Eugene Onegin) at the Rhine Opera; Maddalena (Rigoletto) at the Opernhaus in Zurich and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. She was also a member of the Young Soloists of the Grand Théâtre de Genève for two years. Eager to explore other avenues and to bring genres and people together, Marina Viotti creates projects that call upon the lyrical repertoire as well as cabaret, jazz and song.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Die Zauberflöte (2015), Amahl et les visiteurs du soir (2017), “Music has no borders” (2020 – concert).
Considered one of the finest Handel specialists of his generation, Juan Sancho has performed the roles of Lurcanio (Ariodante) at the Opéra de Lausanne, Grimoaldo (Rodelinda) at the English National Opera, the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Oronte (Alcina) at the Bolshoi, Bajazet (Tamerlano) in Madrid and Tempo (Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) in Madrid. He has released a solo album dedicated to Handel called “The Seven Deadly Sins” and also recorded Handel with Nuria Rial for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (“Human Love, Love Divine”). He has collaborated with many conductors, including Michel Corboz, William Christie, Fabio Biondi, Jordi Savall, Diego Fasolis, Marc Minkowski, Ivor Bolton, George Petrou, Leonardo García Alarcón, Riccardo Minasi, Hervé Niquet, Jan Tomasz Adamus and Václav Luks. His future engagements include: Vitalino in Vivaldi’s Il Giustino at Drottinghom, Handel’s Belshazzar in Göttingen, Corselli’s Achille in Sciro at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and the title role in Gluck’s Orpheus at Biel-Solothurn.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Ariodante (2016).
Guilhem Worms won the “Talents lyriques de Reims, Voix sacrées” competition, which marked the start of his collaboration with Jean-Claude Malgoire in April 2015. A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire (class of Yves Sotin, 2017), he made his mark as Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Palemon (Thaïs) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Since then, he has appeared as Gottfried (Les Fées du Rhin) in Tours and Bienne-Soleure, Lord Rochefort (Anna Bolena) in Bordeaux, Un Laquais (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the First Priest and Second Man-at-Arms (Die Zauberflöte) in Marseille, Leporello (Don Giovanni) in Saint-Étienne, Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia) in Tours, L’Innocent (Yvonne princesse de Bourgogne by Boesmans and Angelotti), Zuniga (Carmen) at Opéra du Rhin and Opéra de Paris, Colline (La bohème) and Marquis d’Obigny (La Traviata) at Capitole de Toulouse, Mathisen (Le Prophète by Meyerbeer) at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Zoroastro (Les Génies de Mlle Duval) at Opéra Royal de Versailles. Projects for the 2023/24 season include Masetto (Don Giovanni) and Un Mandarin (Turandot) at Opéra de Paris and Colline in Saint-Étienne. In recent years, Guilhem Worms has formed a duo with his wife Camille Delaforge (harpsichordist, pianist and conductor), within which they devote themselves to the creation of original recitals: “La dame de mes songes” with Ronald Martin Alonso (popular and learned Franco-Spanish), “Mozart et Salieri” alongside Karolos Zouganelis, and “Près de mon cœur” with Raphaël Cottin (French melodies). A committed artist, Guilhem Worms has been working regularly for several years with people suffering from mental illness at the Conservatoire des deux vallées, and also holds a degree in ethnomusicology from the Université Paris 8.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Alcina (2022).
Ludmila Schwartzwalder is a French mezzo-soprano, who graduated from the HEMU in 2021 with a Master of Arts in Music Performance and specifically concerts (Brigitte Balleys’s class). Passionate about foreign languages, she also holds a Bachelor’s degree in English, German and Swedish. She sings regularly with the self-run women’s Diaphane ensemble, as well as the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne and the Cappella Amsterdam, directed by DanielReuss; and is a soloist for contemporary music creations in an oratorio repertoire. In 2020, she was a finalist in the Nuits lyriques de Marmande competition in the melodies category. In 2021, she won the special Prix Fauré-Séverac at the Concours d’interprétation de la mélodie française in Toulouse. In September 2021, she sang the role of Dorabella (Così fan tutte) at the Opéra de Lausanne and at the Opéra de Fribourg (a co-production of the HEMU, HEM Genève and Opéra de Fribourg). In May 2022, she premiered the title role of Le Chat botté by Etienne Crausaz at the Opéra des Champs.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Alcina (2022).
The Opéra de Lausanne Choir is young, made up of students of singing from Lausanne’s University of Music and the Geneva HEM, and professional singers. Its members are selected by audition and periodically reheard. For each opera, they are distributed depending on their voice and/or aptitudes. Thanks mainly to their talent on stage, supported by an infectious enthusiasm, they are highly appreciated by all the theatre directors invited. For a few years the choir has benefitted from preparation by several experienced choir masters from different backgrounds, chosen depending on the works being sung and their specific interest.
Diego Fasolis began his career as a concert organist before turning to conducting. A regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, he conducts Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Musikverein with the Vienna Concentus Musicus and the Arnold Schönberg Choir. La Scala entrusts him with the creation of an orchestra playing on period instruments, which he then conducts in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. In Milan, he also conducted Tamerlano with Plácido Domingo. With over 120 CDs released by major international labels such as EMI-Virgin, Naïve, Universal Music and Warner Classics, Diego Fasolis has received numerous awards for his commitment to rediscovering the operatic repertoire: the Disco d’Oro, the Grand Prix du Disque for his work on Handel and Vivaldi, and the Echo Klassik for Leonardo Vinci’s opera Artaserse. In 2014 and 2015, he was nominated for two Grammy Awards for the triumphant “Mission” project with works by Agostino Steffani and the “Saint Petersburg” project with Cecilia Bartoli. To mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s death, he recorded Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony with I Barocchisti in Lugano for Arte. In 2019, Diego Fasolis was named Conductor of the Year at the International Opera Awards. Recent and future engagements include Bach’s St. John Passion in Stuttgart, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena in Lugano, Reggio Emilia, Modena and Piacenza, and Vivaldi’s Tamerlano at La Fenice.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Faramondo (2009), Rinaldo (2011), Farnace (2011), L’Artaserse (2012), Dorilla in Tempe (2014), Die Zauberflöte (2015), Ariodante (2016), La clemenza di Tito (2018), Orphée et Eurydice (2019), Meyerbeer’s Gli amori di Teolinda (2019), Alcina (2022), I Barocchisti (Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) (2023) and Norma (2023)
In search of a rigorous aesthetic and conceptual unity for a theater founded on all the arts, Stefano Poda has always developed his own language, combining the functions of director, set and costume designer, lighting designer and choreographer. He has directed over a hundred productions worldwide, including : the opening of the Verona Arena Centenary Festival in the summer of 2023, with a new production of Verdi’s Aida, broadcast worldwide (with a record 12,000 spectators at 13 performances, to be repeated in the 2024 and 2025 seasons); the opening of the Pesaro Rossini Festival 2023 with the first modern performance in the critical edition of Eduardo e Cristina; the launch of the 2023/24 season at Turin’s Teatro Regio with Halévy’s La Juive, which was awarded the Prix Abbiati 2024, the highest distinction of Italian critics; Enesco’s Œdipe at the 2023 Enesco Festival in Bucharest; Rusalka (2022) at the Capitole in Toulouse and in Tel Aviv (2024); the new production of Tosca (2021) at the Bolshoi in Moscow; Nabucco for the inauguration of the National Theater of Korea in 2021 and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (2020, 2022); Romeo and Juliet (2018, 2024) at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing; Boris Godounov (2017) and Andrea Chénier (2015) at the Korean National Opera; L’elisir d’amore in Strasbourg (2016); Otello in Budapest (2015); Tristan und Isolde at the opening of the 77th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. His Faust (2015), Turandot (2018) and Thaïs at Turin’s Teatro Regio, have been shown in cinemas worldwide. In 2019, he receives the Prix Claude Rostand for his production of Dukas’s Ariane et Barbe-Bleue at the Capitole de Toulouse.
At Opéra de Lausanne: Ariodante and Faust (2016), Lucia di Lammermoor (2017), Les contes d’Hoffmann (2019), Alcina (2022) and Norma (2023)
Born in Turin, Paolo Giani Cei has been assisting Stefano Poda all over the world since 2008 in the areas of staging, sets, costumes and lighting, basing his work on a theater that merges all the arts. He works on Aïda for the 100th festival at the Arena di Verona in 2023, as well as on Tristan und Isolde conducted by Zubin Mehta for the opening of the 77th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and – as dramaturge – on Titan, a choreographic show based on Mahler’s First Symphony presented by the National Dance Company of Sao Paulo, and Fosca by Antonio Carlos Gomes at the Sao Paulo Municipal Theatre. In recent years, he has directed Madama Butterfly, La traviata, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, La bohème, Cenerentola, Don Giovanni, Barber of Seville at the Teatro Verdi in Padua, La Voix humaine at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and, in 2021, Die lustige Wittwe at the Teatro Mario del Monaco in Treviso. As an assistant, he is working on Tosca at the Bolshoi in 2021, Nabucco at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 2020/22, Ariane et Barbe-Bleue at the Capitole de Toulouse in 2019, Turandot and Faust at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 2018 and 2015, Otello at the Budapest National Opera in 2015, Boris Godounov and Andrea Chénier at the Coree National Opera in 2017 and 2015, La forza del destino at the Parma Verdi Festival in 2014.
At Opéra de Lausanne: Ariodante and Faust (2016), Lucia di Lammermoor (2017), Les contes d’Hoffmann (2019) and Alcina (2022).