Starting from CHF 15.-
Tickets available online or on site on the day of the concert
Here is a piece that, in a more favorable context (it premiered in 1942), would likely have achieved much greater success, as it appeals to both children and adults alike. With the rich tonal palette of his meticulously developed musical language, Frank Martin brings out the tale’s most contradictory dimensions—its humor and its cruelty—true to the world of the Brothers Grimm. « It needed seriousness, comedy, mystery, tenderness, malice, perverse seduction, and the purest love, » Martin explained. The children’s story takes on a spiritual dimension: « It is more than just a love story; it is the story of a soul reaching ultimate joy after the sufferings of this earthly world.” Balancing humor and seriousness, the work ultimately stands as an initiation tale above all.
Approximate total duration: 1 hour 15 minutes (no intermission).
The Tale of Cinderella (Das Märchen vom Aschenbrödel) is a 70-minute ballet with jazzy tones, composed by Frank Martin for a small orchestra of 32 musicians and 4 solo voices.
The libretto, written in German by Marie-Eve Kreis, is inspired by the Brothers Grimm’s version of the fairy tale. According to Frank Martin, their rendition « is closer to the true thoughts of a child—honest and cruel » compared to Perrault’s version, which he described as « written for already civilized and polite children, well-dressed and well-mannered. »
Storyteller Elodie Fondacci brings her own interpretation of the tale to the stage in French.
Starting from CHF 15.-
Tickets available online or on site on the day of the concert
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The Frank Martin Orchestra, conducted by Thierry Fischer, is a collaborative ensemble that brings together accomplished musicians from major orchestras in the Lake Geneva region and outstanding freelance artists. With an emphasis on inclusivity, the orchestra is not only a platform for seasoned professionals but also welcomes aspiring talents, including students from Geneva’s Haute école de musique.
Zoe Zeniodi, hailed by the press as “Mrs. Dynamite” and the “Ingenious Greek Maestro” has an international career that has led her to collaborations with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Queensland, New Zealand Opera, Opera Southwest, Florida Grand Opera, Greek National Opera, Onassis Cultural Center, among others. She has conducted in places such as the Paris Philharmonie and Carnegie Hall and has guest-conducted orchestras such as Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestras of Colombia, Tatarstan and Vietnam, Bogota Philharmonic, Palm Beach Symphony, Olympia Symphony Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic, Bremen Philharmonic, and many others.
Zoe recently collaborated with Orchestre de Paris and Köln Gürzenich Orchester and debuted with Buenos Aires Philharmonic in a concert with Vadim Gluzman at the Teatro Colón. She returned to Argentina to conduct the opening of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires season at the Teatro Colón and had a collaboration with LA Opera, among others. Her engagements in season 24/25 include Mozart’s Così fan tutte at Opera Australia Sydney; Cunha’s Violin Concerto (world premiere) and Schoenberg’s Pelleas e Melisande with Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre; Corigliano’s Circus Maximus and the world premiere of a commissioned work by Sofia Scheps with Montevideo Banda Sinfónica at Teatro Solís; Osama Abdulrasol’s Barzakh at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen; Gluck’s Iphigenie au Tauride at Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, and concerts with the Royal Symphony Orchestra Sevilla and the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, a.o.
Zoe Zeniodi has been a Fellow of the Hart Institute of Women Conductors (Dallas Opera) since 2016, where she has taken part in concerts and workshops with The Dallas Opera and San Francisco Opera. A Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship Mentee, she was recently a semi-finalist in the La Maestra Competition in Philharmonie de Paris where she was chosen by the jury as one of the six women worldwide to be members of La Maestra Academy with engagements and professional support for 2022-2024. Previous artistic leadership positions include Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Principal Conductor of the Greek-Turkish Youth Orchestra, Chief Conductor of MOYSA, Cover Conductor for Florida Grand Opera, Music and Artistic Director of Broward Symphony Orchestra and Alhambra Orchestra, Associate Music Director of the Festival of the Aegean, Artistic Director of “Consonances” annual music series for the Onassis Foundation Scholars’ Association and Associate Conductor of the Frost Symphony Orchestra.
After studying cello and singing at Geneva’s Haute École de Musique with François Guye and Danielle Borst, culminating in two Masters as Soloist with Distinction, Clémence Tilquin embarked on a dual career in Europe and Japan. A laureate of the prestigious Leenaards Foundation, in 2010 she decided to devote herself entirely to singing, perfecting her vocal skills in London, Oslo, Brussels and Milan. Engagements soon followed. This young soprano made her debut at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie as Papagena, then with the youth troupe of the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Amour [Gluck], the Princess [Prokofiev], Ninette [Verdi]). Subsequent roles have included Adina (Donizetti) in Austria, La Fille de Madame Angot (Lecocq) in Liège, the Princess (Ravel) at the Festival d’Aix-en Provence, Poppea (Monteverdi) with Leonardo García Alarcón, Elettra (Mozart) at the Opéra de Montpellier, Elvira (Rossini) at the Opéra d’Avignon, Lauretta (Puccini), Fiordiligi (Mozart), Fannì (Rossini), Alcina (Vivaldi) and Vitellia (Mozart) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. In concert, Clémence Tilquin has appeared at the Opéra Royal de Versailles singing the Countess (Mozart) with Jean-Claude Malgoire, as well as the Neukomm’s Requiem (on disc), Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Mendelssohn’s Elias with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Ascanio (Saint-Saëns) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève (on disc), chamber music in the season of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Gounod at the Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice and Proserpine (Saint-Saëns) with the Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich (on disc). Very much at ease in contemporary repertoire, Clémence Tilquin has performed Pierrot lunaire (Schoenberg) at the Théâtre de la Comédie in Geneva, Christophe Sturzenegger’s Anakrôn cycle (on disc), György Kurtág’s Requiem for the Beloved in the presence of the composer, music by Hans Zender with the Lemanic Modern Ensemble, music by Stravinsky with the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and Dallapiccola at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. She has performed under the baton of John Nelson, James Loughran, Wolfgang Rihm, Jean-Claude Malgoire, François-Xavier Roth, Emmanuel Krivine, Michail Jurowski and Gábor Takács-Nagy (Cendrillon (Frank Martin), CD). In 2020, Clémence Tilquin was appointed professor of singing at the Haute École de Musique de Genève. She is also director of a research project at the Institut de Recherche en Musique et Arts de la Scène.
Dutch mezzosoprano Maria Warenberg finished her studies with distinction at the Conservatory of Music in Amsterdam under the guidance of professor Sasja Hunnego.
Most recently she made a successful debut as Annio in Mozart´s La clemenza di Tito at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Antwerp/Ghent) in a production that was also presented in Luxemburg and Vienna during the Wiener Festwochen.
In 2021 she debuted as Stéphano in Gounod´s Roméo et Juliette at Opera Zuid. As a former member of the Dutch National Opera Academy in Amsterdam she was able to extend her repertoire and appeared in roles like Foreign Singer in Postcard from Morocco by Argento, Suzanne in Un mari à la porte by Offenbach and Costanza in L’isola disabitata by Haydn with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century under the baton of Kenneth Montgomery.
Other recent highlights include concerts at the Tivoli-Vredenburg Hall in Utrecht and The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. With the same orchestra she performed in a concert performance of The Makropulos Case conducted by Karina Canellakis, also at the Concertgebouw.
Besides opera repertoire, Maria has a big passion for Lied repertoire. She performed in different settings in halls such as The Concertgebouw, Flagey, Brussels, Muziekgebouw aan t’ IJ (Amsterdam), Tivoli Vredenburg, and De Doelen, Rotterdam. Projects included a recital at the International Lied Festival Zeist as well as Les nuits d’été by Berlioz with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie during the Voices Festival in Gut Holzhausen.
Maria Warenberg is a laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2023), a multiple prize winner at the Classic Young Masters competition and she was awarded the Miluska Duffková Scholarship.
This season, she will be a member of the ´Troupe lyrique´ of the Opéra de Paris, performing roles in productions of Les Brigands (Bianca). The Cunning Little Vixen (Lapak), I Puritani (Enrichietta), Suor Angelica (Suora infermiera) and Manon (Rosette). She will also perform in concerts and recitals at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (Recital Hall, Tivoli-Vredenburg in Utrecht and the Victoria Hall in Geneva.
American mezzo-soprano Karis Tucker is in her sixth season at Deutsche Oper Berlin where, as the winner of the 2019 Curt Engelhorn Scholarship awarded by the Opera Foundation in New York, she started in the 2019-2020 season as Stipendiatin. During this time she has sung, among others, the roles of Suzuki, Hänsel, Fenena, Prinz Orlofsky, Second Norn, Flosshilde, Rossweisse, Wellgunde, Smeton, Polina, and Second Lady, as well as the mezzo-soprano solo in Verdi’s Requiem with Staatsballett Berlin. Other season debuts include Glyndebourne Festival, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Mecklenburgische Staatstheater Schwerin, Staatstheater Meiningen, all in the role of Thurza in The Wreckers by Ethel Smyth.
Raised and educated in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, she completed her studies in the United States at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of soprano Amy Johnson. In 2018 she was a Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and in 2019, an Apprentice Artist at Des Moines Metro Opera. She continues to study voice with Romanian soprano Adina Nițescu.
Jason Bridges is establishing himself as an internationally recognized tenor. Born in Pennsylvania, Jason has been based in Geneva, Switzerland for over a decade. He began his musical training at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and continued his education at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow on the MMus Opera Masters program where he was awarded the International Scholarship for Opera Singers.
Jason was a member of the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra National de Paris where he was awarded the Prix AROP as the young artist program’s outstanding male voice for the 2005-2006 season. Jason was also a member of the soloist’s ensemble at the Wiener Staatsoper in Vienna, Austria where he performed notable roles such as Der junge Seeman in Tristan und Isolde, Leopold in La Juive, Froh in Das Rheingold and Antonio in the European premiere of Thomas Ades’ The Tempest.
Jason has been seen in opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe and North America. Operatic roles include the title roles in both Candide and Albert Herring, Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte, Pylade in Iphigénie en Tauride, Renaud in Armide, Tamino in The Magic Flute, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Hussar in Stravinsky’s Mavra, Andres in Wozzeck, Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon, Nemorino in L’elisir d’more, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Lyonel in Martha, Prince Sou-Chong in Das Land des Lächelns and Armand in Boulevard Solitude.
Jason has also created roles in several world premiere operas including Cyrille in Phillipe Boesmans’ Yvonne, Princess de Bourgogne for the Opéra National de Paris, Lorenzo in André Tchaikowsky’s The Merchant of Venice at the Bregenzer Festspiele, and Edgar Allen Poe in Usher House by Gordon Getty for Welsh National Opera and San Francisco Opera.
Most recently, he has performed the roles of Lensky in Eugene Onegin for Welsh National Opera, Lysander in Midsummer Night’s Dream and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni for the Israeli National Opera and Alfredo in La Traviata for Edmonton Opera.
L’Atelier Scénorama is a duo of scenographers, Dany Gandon and Jean-Christophe Ponce, who share their skills and devote themselves to scenography. A shared passion for all forms of creation, invention, poetry, and humor brings them together.
Studies in applied arts for one and performing arts for the other initially opened the doors of stage scenography to them: theater, concerts, parades… Gradually, they also became interested in the possibilities of scenography in museums: permanent, temporary, and traveling exhibitions, interactive tours, and mobile furniture.
They have notably worked for the Musée Albert Kahn, the Panthéon (Paris), the Domaine National de Chambord, the Historial de la Grande Guerre, and La Cité des Sciences in Paris. They are currently designing the future Museum of Animated Cinema in Annecy and the new Jules Verne Museum in the heart of Nantes’ City of Imaginaries.
Since 2020, Scénorama has been collaborating with Elodie Fondacci on storytelling concerts, notably with the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.
Yannick Ferret oversees all the lighting designs for Scénorama’s exhibitions and performances. Lighting plays a significant role in shaping the identity of Scénorama’s projects.
Additionally, Yannick Ferret works with numerous companies, artists, and musicians.
Visual: L’enfant qui entendait les étoiles – De et avec Elodie Fondacci
Direction and set design: Atelier Scénorama
Lighting: Yannick Ferret
Photo credit: Romain Alcaraz