International action

The Festival

The Chorégies have ever wished to try to share their productions abroad, thus participating in the influence of French culture worldwide.

Thus in 2009 did they collaborate with the Baalbeck Festival, in the Lebanon, giving La Travi-ata in the very same production created for the opening of the 2009 edition of the Festival. The production was given under the aegis of the Chorégies, staged by Frédéric Bélier-Garcia and in an identical distribution to Orange, except Violetta’s part, which was sung by the young Albanian Ermonela Jaho.

In 2012 the production of La Bohème was staged abroad twice: First in the Lebanon, at the Beiteddine Festival. Nadine Duffaut’s production was adapted to the site, a two-hundred-years-old palace, a masterpiece of Lebanese architecture, with the Lebanese National Sym-phony Orchestra under the baton of Jean-Yves Ossonce. The part of Rodolfo had been played at Orange by Vittorio Grigolo; not being available, he was replaced by Paolo Fanale (to be heard as Falstaff early 2013 at the Opéra National de Paris); the part of Marcello saw Ludovic Tézier replace Lionel Lhote, and Schaunard was played by Christian Helmer. The same production of La Bohème was given again at a new opera festival in Korea, with two performances under the direction of Myung Whun Chung at the head the Seoul Phil-harmonic Orchestra and with Angela Gheorghiu and Vittorio Grigolo topping the bill.

Such events allow the Chorégies d’Orange to earn further recognition abroad, and confirm their ranking among internationally-renowned opera festivals. Other such collaborations are under consideration, and it is hoped that they can come to fruition.