Migros-Culture-Percentage-Classics 180°

They have now been around for over 40 years: the Musiciens du Louvre, founded by Marc Minkowski and, as the name suggests, originally based in Paris. Within a short space of time, the ensemble played its way to the forefront of those who cultivate historical performance practice. In 1993, they opened the new opera house in Lyon with Lully’s "Phaëton" and won a Gramophone Award for their recording of a Stradella oratorio. During this time, the orchestra moved to Grenoble, where it is still based today, and expanded its repertoire to include early Baroque and 19th-century works by Schubert, Offenbach and Wagner. The Musiciens du Louvre were the first baroque ensemble to receive an invitation from the Vienna State Opera, and they also attracted attention outside Europe, for example on tours to the Far East.

Marc Minkowski founded his own ensemble, the Musiciens du Louvre, when he was just 20 years old. The trained bassoonist had already gained some experience in baroque music with experts such as William Christie and Philippe Herreweghe. As a conductor, he initially concentrated on works from the French Baroque period before expanding his repertoire in subsequent years to include Mozart operas and music from the 19th century. Minkowski has worked at numerous European opera houses, including Paris, Brussels, Munich, Zurich and Vienna. He was Artistic Director of the Mozartwoche Salzburg for four years and General Director of the Opéra National de Bordeaux from 2016 to 2021. In 2011, he fulfilled a very personal dream by founding the Ré majeure festival on the Atlantic island of Île de Ré.

At the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, you could experience a singer who first performed with a metal band before seamlessly switching to classical music: Marina Viotti. This versatility has always been a trademark of the musician, who comes from a French-Swiss musical family: Viotti studied philosophy and literature, plays the flute and sings jazz and gospel. Between 2015 and 2019, she won several singing prizes, including in Geneva and Lausanne, where she was born. After various engagements on Swiss stages, she is now at home throughout Europe, with showpiece roles such as Périchole (Paris) and Carmen (Zurich), and performances in Berlin, Amsterdam and Munich. In 2023, Viotti was named best classical singer of the year in France.

The Belgian baritone Lionel Lhote made his artistic breakthrough at the Brussels Concours Reine Elisabeth in 2004. Since then, his career has taken him to many important opera houses in Europe: he has sung in Paris, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Milan, at the BBC Proms and at the Glyndebourne Festival. In addition to Mozart’s Figaro and Leporello, his showpiece roles include the great Verdi roles ("Don Carlos", "Aida", "La Traviata", "Simone Boccanegra"). Despite all his international engagements, Brussels has remained Lhoté’s point of reference: He once completed his studies here and now teaches at the conservatory himself. He also celebrated a highly acclaimed success at La Monnaie in 2023 with the title role in Saint-Saëns’ rarely performed opera "Henry VIII" under Alain Altinoglu.

"La Vie Parisienne"
"Fantasio"
"La Jolie Parfumeuse"
"Monsieur Choufleuri"
"La Belle Hélène"
"Les Contes d’Hoffmann"
"Le Papillon"
"Orphée aux Enfers"
"Le Royaume de Neptune"
"La Périchole"
"La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein"
"Un Mari à la Porte"
"Le Voyage à la Lune"

The year 1855 marked a decisive turning point in the life of Jacques Offenbach. The cello virtuoso, who was born in Cologne but moved to Paris at the age of 14, opened his first theater, the "Bouffes-Parisiens". The premiere play was already a great success; it was followed over the next 25 years by around 100 lively musical comedies, sometimes melancholy, sometimes sarcastically revealing. Unlike his Viennese operetta colleagues, Offenbach is sometimes decidedly political, for example when he takes aim at the better circles of the Second Empire in "Orphée aux Enfers" and "La Belle Hélène" or satirizes military posturing in "La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein". In addition to these repertoire pieces, Offenbach’s smaller works also include real gems: the opera parody "Monsieur Choufleuri", for example, or the chamber play "Un Mari à la Porte". It was only with real operas that the composer initially struggled. After the success of his late work "Le Voyage à la Lune", based on novels by Jules Verne, it was only "Les Contes d’Hoffmann" that brought him recognition as a "serious" composer. But by then Offenbach was already dead: weakened by gout, he died at his desk at the age of 61.