Der Cornet

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.

Gerhild Romberger was born in the Emsland. After studying music for schools at the Academy of Music in Detmold, she studied with Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Höll. 

As a passionate concert-singer her extremely extensive repertoire encompasses all the major contralto and mezzo-soprano parts in the oratorio and concert repertoire from the Baroque to the Classical and Romantic periods to the 20th century music. 

Significant steps in Gerhild Romberger´s career in recent years were concerts with Manfred Honeck, the Berlin Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Herbert Blomstedt and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester under Riccardo Chailly. Furthermore, she performed with the Vienna and Bamberg Symphony Orchestras under Daniel Harding or at La Scala under Franz Welser-Möst. 

Highlights of the current season include a concert tour with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Beethoven´s 9th Symphony under the baton of Andris Nelsons as well as Mahler´s 3rd Symphony with Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam. Furthermore, she can be heard with Mahler´s Kindertotenlieder and the Budapest Festival Orchestra and with Schumann´s Paradies und Peri at Hamburg´s Elbphilharmonie.

In the theatre, Gilles Privat mainly works with Benno Besson, Matthias Langhoff, Alain Françon, and Jean Liermier, as well as with Dan Jemmett, Didier Bezace, Hervé Pierre, Jacques Rebotier, Claude Buchwald, Jean-François Sivadier, André Wilms, and Clément Hervieu-Léger.

He regularly collaborates with musicians such as Sonia Wieder-Atherton, Liv Heym, Fabrizio Chiovetta, and Alexandre Tharaud for concerts or readings.

From 1996 to 1999, he was a member of the Comédie-Française. In 2008, he received the Molière Award for Best Supporting Actor for L’Hôtel du libre échange. In 2023, he was awarded Best Actor by the French Critics’ Union for his role as Vladimir in Waiting for Godot.

In film, he has appeared in works by Coline Serreau, Chantal Akerman, James Huth, Jérôme Bonnel, Ronan Lepage, Klaudia Reynicke, Clovis Cornillac, Eric Besnard, Andreas Fontana, and Lionel Baier.

Born in 1988 and active in France and Switzerland for the past fifteen years, Alexandre Pateau is one of the most sought-after translators in the French-speaking publishing world. A lover of classical poetry, theater, and opera, his work focuses on the orality and musicality of language, with a particular affinity for the connections between text and music. Notably, he produced a new complete translation of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, published by L’Arche in June 2023. This translation served as the basis for a major production by the Comédie-Française, premiered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival of Lyric Art in July 2023.

The centenary of Rainer Maria Rilke’s death in 2026 offers Alexandre the opportunity to present two new translations to French-speaking audiences—two interpretations of the poet who first awakened his vocation: the correspondence between Rilke and painter Paula Modersohn-Becker, to be published in January by Éditions Zoé, and The Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke, for which the Geneva-based translator is preparing a new version. This latter work is being developed in collaboration with conductor Thierry Fischer and actor Gilles Privat, at the invitation of the Odyssée Frank Martin.