The Great History of Opera

Description

The Great History of Opera Show written by Louis Geisler based on an original idea by Jérémie Lebreton Created by the Grand Théâtre de Genève November 7, 2026 at 3:00 PM At the Institut Florimont December 1 and 4, 2026 at 7:00 PM December 5 and 6, 2026 at 3:00 PM At the Conservatoire de Genève Sung and spoken in French Duration 1 hour Recommended for ages 10 and up Cast Directed by Jérémie Lebreton Scenography Christian Bovey Musical dramaturgy Louis Geisler The Prima Donna Lysa Menu Professor Oduris Joël Terrin The Pianist Arthur Noël Music Excerpts from opera arias by Vincenzo Bellini, Francesco Cavalli, Gaetano Donizetti, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Georg Friedrich Händel, Claudio Monteverdi, Jules Massenet, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jacques Offenbach, Giacomo Puccini, Henry Purcell, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Gioachino Rossini, Richard Strauss, Giuseppe Verdi, and Richard Wagner Work Telling four centuries of lyrical art in one hour, this is the ambitious challenge undertaken by the eminent Professor Oduris with his lecture "The Great History of Opera." During his tour in Switzerland, he is invited to perform at the venue that temporarily houses the musical library of the Grand Théâtre during renovation works. As his presentation begins, he is overshadowed by the fantastic intrusion of a prima donna, straight out of the surrounding scores with her pianist. Allergic to timelines and long speeches, she takes the speaker on an odyssey through time, returning to key moments in the history of lyrical art. At the opera, should music serve the text or take precedence over it? This thorny question, dividing composers for centuries, is the red thread of the show written by Louis Geisler and directed by Jérémie Lebreton. Through a series of sketches that are humorous, dramatic, and poetic, their characters reenact, in their own way, some significant episodes in the history of lyricism, from the creation of L’Orfeo to Richard Strauss’s farewell on stage, including the opening of the first public opera in Venice, the scandal of La Traviata, and the inauguration of the Bayreuth Festival. Their spatio-temporal peregrinations dialogue with the writings of Monteverdi, Gluck, Verdi, and Wagner, alongside the most beautiful pages of Purcell, Rameau, Mozart, Offenbach, Massenet, Puccini, and many others, for the delight of curious minds and genre enthusiasts.