As an endless source of inspiration, Ovid’s Metamorphoses have left a lasting mark on our culture for over two thousand years. Combining some of its episodes with music by Antonio Vivaldi, Stage Director Barrie Kosky creates a pasticcio for our times, a fascinating new work of rich imagination and breathless narratives. With a leading cast of singers assembled by Cecilia Bartoli, and with the participation of actor Angela Winkler, Hotel Metamorphosis stands out as “a panopticon of human emotions”. Vivaldi expert Gianluca Capuano conducts Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco, presenting a unique variety of Vivaldi’s arias, ensembles and choruses, music with a particularly powerful emotional charge. “What a brilliant evening of theatre.” (BR Klassik) / “Checking into this hotel guarantees a luxury stay.” (Kurier) / “…the musical Champions League.” (Deutschlandfunk Kultur)
Le Nozze di Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro is Lorenzo Da Ponte’s and Mozart‘s first of their three jointly created operas about attempts at interpersonal relationships: a turbulent comedy with erotic entanglements, which was not a harmless comedy even in Mozart’s day. Director Martin Kušej moves the drama of love and jealousy to a mafia-like urban milieu where conflicts are fought out with pistols. Young French conductor Raphaël Pichon, “original sound expert” (Der Tagesspiegel) and for the first time on the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker, leads a young ensemble of singers around clan boss Almaviva (“vocally flawlessly brilliant: Andrè Schuen”, Hamburger Abendblatt). “Kušej’s staging is musical, Pichon’s conducting theatrical; the two work together to a degree that is far more rare than it should be. Every detail has been carefully thought through, and the symbiosis is breathtaking.” (Financial Times) “Martin Kušej’s new Figaro is slick, dark and grimly entertaining.” (Financial Times) “One will rarely, if ever, hear ‘Le nozze di Figaro’ so well balanced on stage, with such a homogeneous ensemble of such class, with such a precise Mozart sound.” (Frankfurter Rundschau)
Salzburg Festival 2025: Hotel Metamorphosis
A panopticon of human emotions”: Barrie Kosky combines episodes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses with music by Antonio Vivaldi for the Salzburg Festival, reflecting the full spectrum of Ovid’s narrative art and Vivaldi’s musical work. Cecilia Bartoli has assembled a “world-class” (Kleine Zeitung) cast, and Gianluca Capuano and Les Musiciens du Prince deliver a “highly precise, colourful and exciting performance” (APA). “What a brilliant evening of theatre” (BR Klassik)
Salzburg Festival 2025: Zaide or The Path of Light
Raphaël Pichon, Pygmalion and an “outstanding” (Kurier) cast of singers pull off “a Mozart miracle” (Kronenzeitung) with their new project at the Salzburg Festival. The unfinished singspiel Zaide, excerpts from Davide penitente and Thamos, and concert arias merge into a semi-staged evening that highlights the themes of humanity and freedom in Mozart’s work: “What Raphaël Pichon conjured up from his two excellent ensembles is almost impossible to describe; you simply have to experience it for yourself” (Die Presse). “One of the most powerful experiences of the past decades” (Kurier) “A magnificent quintet of soloists led by the divine Sabine Devieilhe” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Salzburg Festival 2023: Le nozze di Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro is Lorenzo Da Ponte’s and Mozart‘s first of their three jointly created operas about attempts at interpersonal relationships: a turbulent comedy with erotic entanglements, which was not a harmless comedy even in Mozart’s day. Director Martin Kušej moves the drama of love and jealousy to a mafia-like urban milieu where conflicts are fought out with pistols. Young French conductor Raphaël Pichon, “original sound expert” (Der Tagesspiegel) and for the first time on the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker, leads a young ensemble of singers around clan boss Almaviva (“vocally flawlessly brilliant: Andrè Schuen”, Hamburger Abendblatt). “Kušej’s staging is musical, Pichon’s conducting theatrical; the two work together to a degree that is far more rare than it should be. Every detail has been carefully thought through, and the symbiosis is breathtaking.” (Financial Times)
Salzburg Festival 2020: Così fan tutte
At Salzburg Festival the new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte is a magic moment in Mozart interpretation, a true feast for the eyes and ears: A masterfully clever staging, a ravishingly young cast and, with Joana Mallwitz, for the first time a woman stands at the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker for a staged opera production at the Festival. “The sovereignty and prudence with which conductor Joana Mallwitz steers her ensemble and the Wiener Philharmoniker through Mozart’s musical cosmos is phenomenal“, praises BR Klassik, “the orchestra likes to be carried away by her, playing with enthusiasm and brilliance.“ For this shortened version of Mozart´s masterpiece the young conductor joins forces with none other than the internationally renowned director Christof Loy. The celebrated stage director brings unexpected psychological elements to his strikingly modern mise en scène which is coherent down to the smallest detail. On the simple black and white stage, the emotional tragedy takes ist course: The sisters Fiordiligi (sung by stunning French soprano Elsa Dreisig) and Dorabella (beautifully presented by Marianne Crebassa) are subject of a bet made by their betrothed Ferrando (exquisite and sunny voiced Bogdan Volkov) and Guglielmo (hot tempered Andrè Schuen) with Don Alfonso (surprisingly uncynical Johannes Martin Kränzle): true faithfulness would not exist with women. In the end, Don Alfonso should be right and still, this game causes deep wounds for all involved!
Stravaganza d’Amore!
Late sixteenth-century Florence was a theatre: first and foremost a political one, in the eyes of the dynasties that wished to use the arts to display their power. A humanist one too, as is shown by these intermedi (interludes) that sought to achieve the perfect blend between music and poetry. Inserted into plays these entertainments were presented with lavish visual and musical resources. After reaching an initial peak in 1589 with the intermedi composed for Baragli’s La Pellegrina, this tradition was prolonged in the burgeoning genre of opera by such composers as Peri, Caccini, and, very soon, Monteverdi and Gagliano. Rather than aiming for the impossible ideal of a reconstruction, Raphae¨l Pichon has devised a sort of imaginary intermedio by selecting the nest gems from this repertory, featuring the gures of Apollo, Orpheus and Eurydice, and above all Cupid: Love, Love, Love!
Raphaël Pichon conducts Bach’s Mass in B Minor
Young French conductor Raphaël Pichon is the founder of Pygmalion, one of today’s most fascinating and ambitious ensembles for Early Music. Hailed by critics as “currently the best conductor for Bach” (Süddeutsche), Pichon performs an absolutely breathtaking Mass in B Minor in the beautiful Royal Chapel of Versailles.
Vespro della beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin)
Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion join forces with a brilliant group of soloists to present Monteverdi’s monumental Vespro della beata Vergine in a setting as resplendent as the music they are performing: Versailles’s Chapelle Royale. “A masterful interpreter of early music” (BR Klassik)
Le Concert de Paris 2022
It is now a well-established tradition: every year, on July 14, the Orchestre National de France welcomes the summer with a large musical gathering at the foot of the Eiffel Tower with stunning fireworks! Conducted by Cristian Macelaru, and accompanied by the Chorus of Radio France, the orchestra invites the audience around the world and thousands of people on the spot, to experience great arias and famous concert pieces in the company of prestigious soloists like Alice Sara Ott, Nadine Sierra, Lea Desandre, Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Gautier Capuçon Erwin Schrott and Leonidas Kavakos.