Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande

Born in 1979 in Kanagawa, Japan, Kazuki Yamada studied music at the Tokyo University of the Arts. He trained under Seiji Ozawa, developing what he describes as a “Japanese sensibility” in his approach to Western music. Winner of the Grand Prize at the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors in 2009, he has since built an outstanding international career. He works regularly with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and is Principal Guest Conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, and the Orchestre national de France, among others. Deeply committed to education and mentorship, he takes part each year in the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland. Kazuki Yamada has been Artistic and Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo since 2016. Since 2023, he has also served as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He was recently appointed Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. In Monaco, he has fostered a close relationship between the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, leading joint projects such as Elijah (2019), Carmina Burana (2023), Verdi’s Requiem in Birmingham, and Mahler’s Second Symphony in Monaco (2024/25). His tenure in Monte-Carlo will conclude at the end of the 2025/26 season. At the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, he has conducted Samson et Dalila, La Damnation de Faust, Wozzeck, Verdi’s Requiem, L’Heure espagnole & L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, and will return in 2025 to conduct Pelléas et Mélisande.

Born in Monaco in 1960, Jean-Louis Grinda began his career in 1981 as Artistic Secretary at the Opéra d’Avignon and the Chorégies d’Orange. From 1986 to 1999, he served as Director of the Grand Théâtre de Reims. In 1996, he was appointed General and Artistic Director of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie (Liège), a position he held until 2007. There, he established an eclectic programming policy and made his directorial debut with Singin’ in the Rain, which received the 2001 Molière Award for Best Musical Production, and staged a highly acclaimed Ring cycle. Since then, he has directed more than fifty operas and musicals, from Paris to San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Montreal, Hong Kong, Santiago de Chile, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rome, and Paris. He served as Director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo from 2007 to 2022. During these fifteen years, he notably expanded the repertoire, increased the number of performances, and implemented initiatives aimed at opening the theatre more widely to new audiences, particularly younger ones. In 2015, together with Cecilia Bartoli, he founded the orchestra-in-residence of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco. He has also been Director of the Chorégies d’Orange from 2016 to 2026. Among his recent and ongoing projects are Lucrezia Borgia, Carmen, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and L’Heure espagnole, La Damnation de Faust, Un ballo in maschera, and Porgy and Bess.

Laurent Castaingt divides his time between theatre, dance, and opera, always seeking to diversify genres and approaches. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Alfredo Arias, Bernard Murat, Jean-Louis Grinda, Richard Brunel, Jean-Claude Auvray, René Loyon, as well as Karel Reisz, Japanese choreographer Hideyuki Yano, Roman Polanski, Gérard Desarthe and François Marthouret, Sylvie Testud, Laure Duthilleul, Madeleine Marion, Pierre Barrat and Marie-Noël Rio, Jean-Claude Berutti, Marie-Pascale Osterrieth, Alain Delon, among many others. He created both the set and lighting design for the stage adaptation of Virginie Despentes’ novel King Kong Theory at the Théâtre de l’Atelier (directed by Vanessa Larré). His research on light and its relationship with nature led to Écorces vives, an outdoor installation in Geneva, as well as a collaboration with illustrator François Schuiten on Planet of Visions for Expo 2000 in Hanover. He has worked on major stages around the world, including in Paris, Vienna (Volksoper), Barcelona (Liceu), Rome (Teatro Valle), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colón), and at the opera houses of Hong Kong, Valencia, Tokyo, and Dallas, as well as the Chorégies d’Orange and the Sporting de Monaco. At the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, he has lit more than twenty productions, including Carmen, Thaïs, Madama Butterfly, Il turco in Italia, Werther, La Damnation de Faust, La traviata, La Fille du régiment, La Bohème, L’Heure espagnole & L’Enfant et les sortilèges. His book exploring the role of light in stagecraft and its connection to painting, Le Théâtre de la Lumière, was published in September 2023 by Deuxième Époque.

Born in Santiago, Chile, Jorge Jara studied architecture in his hometown before moving to Berlin, where he began designing costumes for theatre, film, and opera in 1975. He has worked with directors such as Pierre Audi, Luc Bondy, Nicolas Brieger, Guy Joosten, and Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Among his many productions are What Next? (Carter) and Von heute auf morgen (Schönberg) at the Staatsoper Berlin; a Mozart cycle and Lulu in Liège; La Bohème in Lyon, Zurich, and Hamburg; Fidelio in Leipzig; Roméo et Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera; Der Cornet and Galileo in Geneva; The Tempest and Król Roger in Frankfurt; Die Zauberflöte at the Salzburg Festival; Un ballo in maschera and Orphée aux Enfers in Lausanne; L’Elisir d’amore in Amsterdam; Rigoletto in Copenhagen; La Vestale in Vienna (Theater an der Wien); and over fifteen productions at La Monnaie in Brussels. He also designed costumes for La Fille du régiment at the Royal Opera House in Muscat (Oman) and Ermione at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro — a production that received the 2024 Franco Abbiati Prize from the Italian critics’ association. In 2026, he will design costumes for Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. At the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, he has created costumes for La Dame de pique, Le nozze di Figaro, Falstaff, La traviata, Das Rheingold, Pagliacci, Le Joueur, Tannhäuser, Lucia di Lammermoor, Thaïs, Il turco in Italia, La Damnation de Faust, and, most recently, La Fille du régiment.

Born in Livorno (ltaly) in 1960, Stefano Visconti studied the piano and then choral conducting with Fosco Corti and Roberto Gabbiano, as well as orchestra conducting with Piero Bellugi and Giancarlo Andretta. He was appointed choirmaster at Opéra de Monte-Carlo in 2007. Before this he was choirmaster at the Teatro Goldoni, Livorno (1991-2001), Choirmaster at the Opéra-Théâtre d’Avignon (2001-2007), as well as Choirmaster at the Festival Puccini, Torre del Lago (1999-2015). From 1984 to 2001 he conducted the Guido Monaco Polyphonic Choir of Livorno which, under his direction, won several national awards (Vittorio Veneto, Arezzo and Florence competitions). In 2000 he founded the Chamber Choir of Tuscany, formed of professionals. He directed the reconstitution of the complete sacred works of Giuseppe Cambini for soloists, choir, and orchestra. Since 2008 he has conducted the choirs of the Sanxay Lyrical Evenings. He is the artistic and music director of the Monte Carlo Chamber Choir. He has made several recordings with Foné, Agora and Kikko Classics, in particular several of Mascagni’s operas (L’amico Fritz, I Rantzau, Lodoletta, Guglielmo Ratcliff, Silvano, Cavalleria rusticana, Iris and Sì). Since 2017 he has directed the coordination of the choirs for the Chorégies d’Orange festival.

British baritone Huw Montague Rendall is an alumnus of the Royal College of Music of London, trained under the tutorage of Russell Smythe, David Rendall and Philip Doghan. In summer 2016 Montague Rendall was a Jerwood Young Artist with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where he sang the role of Fiorello (Il barbiere di Siviglia), for which he was awarded the much-coveted John Christie Award 2016. The following summer he joined the prestigious Young Artist Programme at the Salzburger Festspiele and was a member of the International Opera Studio in Zürich from 2016 to 2018. Since then, he has made acclaimed debuts on some of the world’s most important stages such as the Royal Ballet & Opera in London, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Salzburger Festspiele or the Glyndebourne Festival. Winner of the 2024 Oper! Awards for Best Newcomer, last season saw Montague Rendall perform as Il Conte in Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Ballet & Opera in London, and then he made his house and role debut at the Wiener Staatsoper in the title role in Billy Budd. Other engagements included a new production of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra national de Paris, Il Conte from Le nozze di Figaro in a new production at Glyndebourne Festival and at the BBC Proms. Montague Rendall’s 25-26 season will include his debut as Dandini (La Cenerentola) at Opéra national de Paris, and a performance as Pelléas in the new production of Pelléas et Mélisande of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

Born in Montreal and trained in the United Kingdom at the Royal College of Music, King's College Cambridge, and the National Opera Studio, Grammy Award-winning Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley initially focused on Mozart's music. His Don Giovanni and Count (in Le nozze di Figaro) have been heard live and broadcast around the world. His ever-expanding repertoire quickly encompassed the great works of Wagner and Verdi, as well as roles such as Bluebeard, William Tell, J. Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams' Dr. Atomic, and Jaufré Rudel in Kaija Saariaho's L'amour de loin. A renowned recitalist, he works regularly with pianist Julius Drake. The duo has performed extensively around the world, including at the Schubertiade, in residence at Wigmore Hall, at Carnegie Hall in New York, and at the Salzburger Festspiele. Gerald Finley has also sung with Sir Antonio Pappano, Malcolm Martineau, Simon Lepper, and Michael McMahon. His numerous solo CDs are devoted to the complete song cycles of Barber, Britten, Duparc, Ives, Liszt, Ravel, and Schumann (Dichterliebe and Liederkreis). Gerald Finley's 25/26 season includes a new production of Tosca at the Royal Ballet & Opera in London, his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in the role of Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Amfortas (Parsifal) at the Wiener Staatsoper, Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Golaud in the new production of Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

After studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, French baritone Laurent Naouri was quickly engaged on numerous national stages: Bordeaux National Opera, Nancy-Lorraine National Opera, Lyon National Opera, Chorégies d'Orange, etc. He made his debut at the Paris Opera in the role of Theseus (Hippolyte et Aricie by Rameau). This opened the doors to major international venues, from La Scala to the Liceu in Barcelona, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and the Tokyo Opera. During his career, Laurent Naouri has had the opportunity to collaborate with renowned conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink, and Emmanuelle Haïm, in a repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary, including Italian opera (Verdi, Puccini). He has thus been able to tackle roles as diverse as Don Pasquale (Donizetti), Falstaff (Verdi), Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Mephistopheles (La Damnation de Faust), the Chief of the Carabiniers (Les Brigands by Offenbach), Scarpia (Tosca), and Golaud (Pelléas et Mélisande). During the 25-26 season, Laurent Naouri will sing Sir William Crusoé (Robinson Crusoé) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Capulet (Roméo et Juliette) at the Teatro Real in Madrid, before taking on the role of Arkel at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in a new production of Pelléas et Mélisande.

French soprano Jennifer Courcier is one of the most promising light sopranos of her generation, acclaimed for her vivid stage presence and the clarity of her voice. A former member of the Paris Opera’s children’s choir (Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine), she made her solo debut at the age of 14 in La Petite Renarde rusée (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées), Le Tour d’écrou (Nantes), and Pelléas et Mélisande (Toulouse). She trained at the CNIPAL, at the CRR de Paris with Stéphane Fuget, and later with Daniel Ottevaere. She is the winner of several competitions, including the Grand Prix Enesco in 2016. In recent seasons, she has performed on major French stages, including the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Yniold in Pelléas et Mélisande), the Opéras of Lyon and Marseille (Jemmy in Guillaume Tell, Fleurette in Barbe-Bleue), Lille (l’Infante in Le Nain), Tours (la Charmeuse in Thaïs), and Limoges (le Feu and la Princesse in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges). She has sung Sophie (Werther) at both the Opéra national du Rhin and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and Cupidon (Orphée aux Enfers) in Nantes, Nancy, and Nice. She collaborates regularly with Opera Fuoco (dir. David Stern), notably in Shanghai (Belinda in Didon et Énée) and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Fiordiligi in Così fanciulli by Nicolas Bacri). She also took part in the Académie of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. At the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, she has performed alongside Cecilia Bartoli in Le Comte Ory, sung Sophie in Werther, la Charmeuse in Thaïs, and portrayed une Pastourelle and la Chauve-Souris in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. She returns in 2025 as Yniold in Pelléas et Mélisande.

“Vocal Artist of the Year” at the Opus Klassik 2022 awards and winner of the 2024 Critics’ Prize, French-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre trained in singing in Venice with Sara Mingardo before joining William Christie’s Le Jardin des Voix and the Aix-en-Provence Festival Academy in 2015. After making her debut in the world of baroque ensembles, collaborating frequently with Raphaël Pichon's Ensemble Pygmalion and William Christie's Les Arts Florissants, Lea Desandre distinguished herself in the title role of Médée (Charpentier) at the Paris Opera, as well as in the roles of Idamante (Mozart's Idomeneo), Ariodante (Handel's Ariodante), Timna (Rameau's Samson), and others. She has collaborated with directors such as Sir David McVicar, Barrie Kosky, Robert Carsen, and Claus Guth. Since 2018, she has performed annually at the Salzburger Festspiele, most recently as Myrrah/Echo in Vivaldi's Hotel Metamorphosis. She also performs in concerts around the world, from Carnegie Hall to the Philharmonie de Paris and Wigmore Hall. She regularly performs in duo with Alexandre Kantorow and Thomas Dunford. Among her upcoming engagements for 25-26, she will sing the title role in Handel's Theodora on tour with Jupiter (conducted by Thomas Dunford) and Sesto in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito at Zurich Opera. She reprises her favorite role of Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) at the Opéra de Paris and Despina in Così fan tutte (Mozart) at the Salzburger Festspiele. She will also play Mélisande in the new production of Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

After studying literature at the University of Rouen and art history at the École du Louvre, Marie Gautrot entered the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, where she studied with Marie-Claire Cottin, Pierre Mervant, Gerda Hartman, and Mireille Alcantara. An eclectic artist, she performs a wide range of repertoire, from baroque works to contemporary creations. She has sung Carmen in Grenoble, Poissy, and Caluire; Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) in Versailles; Ramiro (La finta giardiniera) and Dorabella (Così fan tutte) in Toulon; Maddalena (Rigoletto) in Limoges; Fenena (Nabucco) in Grenoble; Amneris (Aida) and Nicklausse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) in Metz. At the Paris Opera, she has appeared as Emilia (Otello) and Giovanna (Rigoletto). She has also sung Mallika (Lakmé) in Rouen, la Voix de la Mère (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) in Tokyo and Lyon, Dame Marthe (Faust) in Saint-Étienne, Hedwig (Les Fées du Rhin) in Tours and Bienne/Solothurn, and Opinion publique (Orphée aux Enfers) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Upcoming engagements include Fenena in Marseille, Catarina in Fausto by Louise Bertin at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and La Nonne sanglante in Saint-Étienne. At the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, she has performed Albine (Thaïs) and the Marquise de Berkenfield (La Fille du régiment); she returns in 2025 as Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande.