Choir sponsored by
this dark tale is a further sign of the affinities between Alexander von Zemlinsky and Oscar Wilde, after The Florentine Tragedy (1917). With a libretto by Georg C. Klaren based on The Birthday of the Infanta, in which a beautiful young princess receives a dwarf as a birthday present, this dazzling one-act tragedy with the pithy title The Dwarf premiered in Cologne in 1922.
Zemlinsky’s music is remarkable for its orchestral complexity and striking theatricality. In the naivety of his love, the dwarf remains unaware of his deformity; not knowing that he is irremediably ugly, he believes that his feelings are shared. Then he discovers the truth and the illusion is shattered, at the height of the musical intensity. Zemlinsky makes no secret of the fact that he himself experienced this “tragedy of the ugly man”, passionately in love with his pupil – the future Alma Mahler – who described him in her autobiography as “a hideous gnome”. Although it is a concentration of suffering and cruelty, this work above all shows a being with a grotesque physical appearance who nonetheless conveys disturbing beauty when he sings of his love.
A tireless revealer of the truths hidden deep within human souls, Jean Liermier, who has long been fascinated by Wilde’s text, will be directing. For the first time, conductor Sora Elisabeth Lee will be guiding the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra in the reduced version for 18 musicians by Jan-Benjamin Homolka.
First performance May 28, 1922 at the Stadttheater, Cologne
Adaptation for chamber orchestra Jan-Benjamin Homolka (2014)
Universal Edition AG Vienna
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne
Opéra de Lausanne Choir
Choir Director Pascal Mayer
Trained as an actor, director and teacher, Jean Liermier has been at the head the Théâtre de Carouge, one of the leading theatrical institutions in French-speaking Switzerland, since 2008. In theatre, he is mainly interested in staging plays from the classical repertoire, such as Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac or Molière’s Le Malade imaginaire, with actor Gilles Privat in the title roles. In March 2023, he directed Alfred de Musset’s On ne badine pas avec l’amour in Carouge. In opera, he directed Walton’s The Bear for the Opéra décentralisé in Neuchâtel, Die Zauberflöte for the Opéra de Marseille at the invitation of Renée Auphan, Cantates profanes, une petite chronique, a montage of cantatas by Jean-Sébastien Bach for the Opéra national du Rhin and Le nozze di Figaro for the Opéra national de Lorraine and the Opéra national de Caen (a show that was repeated in 2011 and 2012 in Nancy and Rennes). In June 2009, he directed Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges for the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris, a show that was repeated in May 2011 at the Opéra National de Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid and then at the Bilbao Opera House.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: My Fair Lady (2015), Così fan tutte (2018) and My Fair Lady (2022).
Rudy Sabounghi has worked for theater and opera with artists such as Klaus Michael Gruber, Luc Bondy, Jean-Claude Berutti, Jacques Lassalle, Luca Ronconi, Deborah Warner, Jean-Louis Grinda, Jean Liermier, Muriel Mayette, Fabrice Murgia and filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin. For dance, he has worked with Anne-Teresa de Keersmaeker and Lucinda Childs. He recently took part in the creation of Mozart’s Concerts Arias at the Opéra Ballet de Flandre in Antwerp (choreography by De Keersmaeker), Le Sourire de Darwin at the Théâtre de Nice (directed by Muriel Mayette, written and performed by Isabella Rossellini), and the sets and costumes for On ne badine pas avec l’amour at the Théâtre de Carouge, directed by Jean Liermier. In the past, he has worked at the Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne on L’Homme difficile, Le Misanthrope (directed by Jean Lassalle) and Phèdre (directed by Luc Bondy), as well as Cyrano and La Fausse Suivante at the Théâtre de Carouge (directed by Jean Liermier). He teaches regularly at ENSATT in Lyon. In preparation this summer 2024 for the next edition of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro: Bianca & Falliero (directed by Jean-Louis Grinda), in January 2025 Tristan & Isolde at Opéra de Liège (directed by Jean-Claude Berutti), then Werther (directed by Fabrice Murgia) at Opéra de Liège in March 2025.
At Opéra de Lausanne: Così fan tutte (2018)
Jean-Philippe Roy started in 1977 at the Théâtre de Carouge under the direction of François Rochaix. Freelance lighting designer since 1981, he regularly designs the lighting for operas directed by François Rochaix and designed by Jean-Claude Maret, notably at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. With the director Claude Stratz and the set designer Ezio Toffolutti, he lights several plays at the Comédie de Genève, the Opéra de Lausanne and the Comédie Française. For the past few years, he has been working with the director Jean Liermier: in opera with Die Zauberflöte in Marseille, Bach’s Cantates profanes in Strasbourg, Le nozze di Figaro in Nancy; in theater with Penthésilée by Heinrich von Kleist at the Comédie Française, Le Médecin malgré lui by Molière at the Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne, Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard by Marivaux, L’École des Femmes, Le Malade imaginaire by Molière, La Vie que je t’ai donnée by Pirandello and Cyrano de Bergerac by Rostand at the Théâtre de Carouge, where he will soon collaborate in Sur les marionnettes by Kleist (directed by Gilles Lambert) and On ne badine pas avec l’amour by Musset (directed by Jean Liermier).
At the Opéra de Lausanne: My fair Lady (2015) and Così fan tutte (2018).