10 years since the opening of the hall and the Bordeaux Opera season

The concert recorded by France Musique on 23 September 2023 and broadcast live from the auditorium National Opera of Bordeaux.

Supported by the Philippine Rothschild Foundation.
Contributed by the Caisserie Bordelaise group.

The opening of the 2023-24 season of the National Opera of Bordeaux and the tenth anniversary of the auditorium
With ONB Choir
National Orchestra of Bordeaux-Aquitaine
Direction: Joseph Swensen
As soloist: Geneva Lewis, violin

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the National Opera Hall in Bordeaux, all the artistic forces of opera come together for an extraordinary evening broadcast live on ten squares in Bordeaux, like the many “virtual concert halls” temporarily installed in the city. Thus classical music leaves its walls and mixes with other pleasures of life. The concert is also broadcast to remote audiences (university hospitals, health institutes, detention centres, nursing homes, etc.).

Under the direction of Joseph Swensen, the National Opera Chorus of Bordeaux prepared by Salvatore Caputo and the National Orchestra of Bordeaux-Aquitaine perform excerpts from Offenbach’s La Vie parisienne. Geneva Lewis joins the Ravel Orchestra for Tzigane and Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy. This New Zealand violinist is the recipient of the 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, the 2021 Avery Fisher Career Scholarship, and won the grand prize in the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition. She is also a BBC New Generation Artist from 2022 to 2024.
Also on the programme: Ravel’s Spanish Rapsodie and Valses Nobles et Senmentales, Saint-Saëns’s Bacchanale of Samson and Delilah, and the Second Suite from Stravinsky’s The Firebird, for the National Orchestra of Bordeaux-Aquitaine and Joseph Swensen, who will be its music director from the 2024-25 season.

Part 1.

cami san sans,

Samson and Delilah, ref. 47 :
Bacchanal (Third Semester Science 2)

Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra
Joseph Swensen: Musical direction

franz Waxman,

Carmen Fantasia

Geneva Lewis: Violin
Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra
Joseph Swensen: Musical direction

Maurice Ravel,

Spanish dancer :
1. Preparation for the night. Moderate
2. Malaginia. Very sharp
3. Habanera. listless and exhausting rhythm
4. Veria. Very lively

Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra
Joseph Swensen: Musical direction

break.

• Interview with Emmanuel Ondry, General Director of the National Opera of Bordeaux

• And with Michel Petaud Letang, the architect who designed the hall.

Part 2.

Jacques Offenbach – Henri Millac and Ludovic Halevy,

Parisian life (excerpt) :
– Chorus of “We are employees of the Western Line” (Act 1, Scene 1)
– Chorus of “We are coming, coming, from all the countries of the world” (Act 1, Scene 11)

National Opera Choir of Bordeaux
Salvatore Caputo: head of the choir
Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra
Joseph Swensen: Musical direction

Maurice Ravel,

Gypsy m.76

Geneva Lewis: Violin
Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra
Joseph Swensen: Musical direction

Maurice Ravel,

Noble and sentimental waltz M61
1. Moderate – very frank
2. Too slow
3. Moderate
4. Very energetic
5. Almost slow
6. Lively
7. Less energetic
8. The ending is slow

igor stravinsky,

Firebird, Suite No. 2 (1919) :
1. Introduction: The firebird and its dance – the diversity of the firebird
2. Princess tour
3. The infernal dance of King Casci and his subjects
4. Lullaby
5. The end

Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra
Joseph Swensen: Musical direction

After the party.

• Interview with conductor Joseph Swensen, next music director of the National Orchestra of Bordeaux-Aquitaine.

• Interview with Valérie Petit, double bass soloist of the National Orchestra of Bordeaux-Aquitaine.

A concert in Bordeaux by Sonya Yoncheva, soprano and Antoine Baloc, piano (excerpt)

Concert recorded by France Musique on 5 November 2017 at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux.