Michael Spyres, Pene Pati, Sabine Devieilhe, Étienne Dupuis & Stéphane Degout Lead Opera Comique’s 2025-26 Season

Opera Comique has announced its 2025-26 season. Opera The season opens with Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” with Michael Spyres, Héloïse Mas, Amina Edris, and Jean-Sébastien Bou. Pierre Dumoussaud conducts the production by Lotte De Beer. Performance Dates: Sept. 25-Oct. 5, 2025 Gluck’s “Iphigénie en Tauride” will star Tamara Bounazou, Theo Hoffman, Philippe Talbot, Jean-Fernand Setti, Léontine Maridat-Zimmerlin, Fanny Soyer, and Lysandre Châlon. Louis {…}

Dec 29, 2024

Opéra-Comique Paris 2024-25 Review: Les Fêtes d’Hébé

(Photo: Vincent Pontet) If I were to rank the weakest opera libretti of all time, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Antoine-César Gautier de Montdorge’s “Les Fêtes d’Hébé ou Les Talents Lyriques” would certainly be in the top tier. Nevertheless, the opera-ballet possesses an allegorical charm that transcends the quality of its text—and it is a charm that is not solely musical. After {…}

Mar 22, 2024

Joyce El-Khoury, Lea Desandre, Anne-Catherine Gillet & Jarrett Ott Lead Opéra Comique’s 2024-25 Season

Opéra Comique has announced its schedule for the 2024-25 season. Auber’s “Le Domino noir” is set to be conducted by Louis Langrée and will be directed by Valérie Lesort and Christian Hecq. The cast includes Anne-Catherine Gillet, Cyrille Dubois, and Victoire Bunel. Performance Date: Sept. 20-28, 2024 George Benjamin & Martin Crimp’s “Picture a Day Like This” is set to {…}

Feb 22, 2024

Opéra Comique 2023-24 Review: Winterreise

(Photo: DR Rideau de fer) In theory, few programs are more proper for a Valentine’s Day that falls on Ash Wednesday than “Winterreise” in Opéra Comique. The romantic idealism of Valentine’s Day blends well with the bitter aftermath of carnival when all pleasures must be delayed for Lent. After a long run singing a scenic and orchestral version of Schubert’s {…}

Jun 29, 2023

Opéra Comique 2023 Review: Zémire et Azor

(Photo Credit: DR Stefan Brion) The works of André de Grétry are seldom performed, nowadays. There is a reason why. Despite all their great merits and genre innovations, Grétry’s operas are always at risk of looking mundane, or even less than ordinary, if not played by inspiring artists. “Zémire et Azor” is no exception to such an axiom. On the {…}

Mar 15, 2023

Q & A: Francesco Filidei on His Opera ‘L’Inondation’ & Approach to Composition

Composer Francesco Filidei is on a good streak. After the success of the creation of his new cello concerto in the Festival Presences, he is having his opera, “L’Inondation,” performed a second time in Paris’s historic Operá-Comique. We met during the rehearsals of his opera to debate his views on composing and opera. OperaWire: “L’Inondation” is on its second run {…}

Mar 9, 2023

Opéra Comique 2023 Review: L’Inondation

An opera composer, regardless of their era, always has to address the question, “Why opera?” The answer must come from the opera itself. Francesco Filidei and Joël Pommerat’s “L’Inondation” tell us their “whys.” Opera, though deemed an anachronic format, brings back this lyrical rhetoric tradition to recover an overpowering form of sensibility. “L’Inondation,” was based on Yevgeny Zamyatin’s novella “Navodneniye (The Flood),” which tells {…}

Feb 5, 2023

Opéra Comique 2023 Review: Voyage Dans la Lune

Peter Brook, in his book “Empty Stage,” once commented on the impossible equation that is theater, especially opera: “At the Metropolitan Opera in New York in a brand-new building the best of Europe’s singers under the baton of the best Mozart conductor, and organized by the best producer, play a “Magic Flute.” […] The [opera] ticket is ‘hot’—but what is {…}

Jan 17, 2023

Opéra Comique Announces Cast Change for ‘Carmen’

The Opéra Comique has announced a cast change for its production of “Carmen.” The company said that “due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maestro Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra are unfortunately unable to participate in performances of the new production of ‘Carmen’ directed by Andreas Homoki from April 24 to May 4, in co-production with the Beijing Music Festival and {…}

Nov 15, 2022

Opéra Comique 2022-23 Review: Armide

The main achievement of Opéra-Comique’s “Armide” production is to blend the staging with the performers’ own personas. That mixture resulted in an elevation of Gluck’s music and Quinault’s text through the performers’ engagement. Don’t get me wrong: Lilo Baur’s staging had some problems and did not aim as high as it could. The opera, however, shone, because its performers brought {…}

Apr 18, 2022

French Opera Companies Endorse Emmanuel Macron

In anticipation of the French election, many opera directors and companies are showing their support for Emmanuel Macron. In a petition on change.org, arts leaders are calling on their followers to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the presidential run-off. Among the leaders from the opera world include Alexander Neef from the Paris Opéra, Louis Langrée from the Opéra Comique, Richard {…}

Opéra Comique Paris