Stéphanie d'Oustrac
Birthday: Place of Birth:
Synopsis
Acting
Berlioz: Les Troyens
In 1854, Hector Berlioz confided in his memoirs that, “For three years, I have been tormented by the idea of a vast opera for which I would like to write both words and music.” Held back by the failures of Benvenuto Cellini and La Damnation de Faust, the composer was to wait another two years before throwing himself into Les Troyens, an enterprise based on Virgil’s Aeneid: an ancient text that, galvanised by the master’s brilliant orchestral modernity, breathed new life into an operatic world still dominated by Verdi. In 1990, when the curtain rose for the first time at the Opéra Bastille, it revealed the Trojan plains. Thirty years later, a new production directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov marks the anniversary of the opera house, revealing the work in all its immensity.
Les Contes d'Hoffman
This adaptation of three tales by E.T.A. Hoffmann, with a sprinkling of Goethe’s Faust, portrays the German poet as both narrator and hero recounting his love affairs with Olympia, Antonia and Giuletta. Robert Carsen’s spectacular production highlights the melancholy genius of a man marked by life, with a coherence and dramatic sense remarkable for a work that leaves numerous questions unanswered. Under the baton of Philippe Jordan, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Ermonela Jaho, Kate Aldrich, Yann Beuron and Ramón Vargas and Stefano Secco in the main role, interpret the legendary airs of this work whose brilliant mystery will continue to dazzle opera houses for countless years to come.
