Rachel Sparer Bersier is a renowned American soprano based in Switzerland. She has performed at some of the most prestigious opera houses and concert halls across Europe and the United States. She is particularly acclaimed for her portrayals of dramatic roles, including Norma, Turandot, and Ariadne auf Naxos. A highly sought-after pedagogue, she regularly gives masterclasses throughout Europe and also maintains a private teaching studio in Lausanne and Geneva.

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Mezzo-soprano, she earned degrees in both singing and acting from the Geneva Conservatory before furthering her training at the International Opera Studio in Zurich.

The recipient of numerous scholarships (Migros, Ernst Göhner, Leenaards, Les Saints Anges Paris), she is also a prizewinner of several international competitions, including Plácido Domingo’s prestigious “Operalia” competition.

She performs in Switzerland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Monaco, Italy, the Sultanate of Oman, and Japan. Carine is regularly invited to appear in opera productions, recitals, and sacred music performances (oratorios, masses, and cantatas).

Recently, she performed in Die Walküre in Marseille, Mélisande in Neuchâtel, and Madame Argante in La Sérénade at the opera houses of Avignon and Rennes. With the EVL and the Orchestre Musique des Lumières conducted by Facundo Agudin, she recorded the alto solo in Bach’s Markuspassion.

Another recent release is the CD recording of La Sorcière by Camille Erlanger, conducted by Guillaume Tourniaire, in which she recorded the role of Aïsha. She also performs in recital with the Trio Saveurs, exploring a wide repertoire of duets for female voices accompanied by piano. More recently, she sang the title role in Carmen with Opéra des Champs and the Fribourg Chamber Orchestra, performed Hänsel in Solothurn with the Stadtorchester Solothurn under Harald Siegel, and appeared as Véronique in Bizet’s Le Docteur Miracle with Opéra de Lausanne on tour (Route Lyrique 2025).

Soon, she will perform the role of Fenena in Verdi’s Nabucco at Geneva’s Victoria Hall in a concert version with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) conducted by R. Mayor.

Her latest news can be found at: www.sechaye.com

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It was in Marseille, his hometown, and through extensive musical studies, that Claude Cortese’s passion for opera and live performance in general developed.

Very interested in everything that escapes the public eye, backstage and the work carried out upstream, he naturally moved into stage management from a young age.
It was at the Opéra de Lausanne that he obtained, in 1990 at the age of 19, his first professional engagement, on a production of La Traviata.

In 2003, Jean-Paul Davois called on him to serve as his deputy as Artistic Administrator of the newly created structure Angers Nantes Opéra. Over eleven years, he contributed significantly to the development of artistic programming and was responsible for casting.

In 2014, he joined Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy, where he became Director of Artistic Administration. In close collaboration with its director Laurent Spielmann, he designed and organised both opera and symphonic seasons.

In 2020, Alain Perroux, newly appointed General Director of Opéra national du Rhin (Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Colmar), invited him to join as Director of Artistic Production.

In February 2023, after nearly 20 years in artistic leadership positions, and 33 years after beginning his career in the same opera house in Lausanne, he was unanimously appointed Director.

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Born in Strasbourg, Antoinette Dennefeld studied at the Haute École de Musique in Lausanne. Winner of numerous international competitions, she has performed at the Opéra National de Paris, Opéra Comique, Opéra National de Lyon, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opéra National du Rhin, Opéra de Marseille, Opéra de Dijon, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Opéra de Lausanne, Opéra de Tenerife…

Her repertoire includes mainly French Romantic roles such as Charlotte (Werther), the title role in Carmen, Concepción (L’Heure espagnole), Prince Charming (Cendrillon), Mozart roles such as Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Annio (La Clemenza di Tito), and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), but also Italian roles such as Rosina (Barbiere), Isolier (Le Comte Ory), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), as well as extensive experience with Offenbach operas such as La belle Hélène, La Périchole, Maître Péronilla, La Princesse de Trébizonde, Le Roi Carotte, Barkouf, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Les Brigands.

She has performed Carmen in Strasbourg and Mulhouse, Charlotte in Marseille, Hermia (A Midsummer Night's Dream) in Lille, Régina (La Princesse de Trébizonde) with the London Symphony Orchestra, the title role in La Périchole at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Opéra de Dijon, and the Opéra de Toulon, Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) with the Orchestre national de France, Giulietta in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Opéra National de Paris, and Meg (Falstaff) at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and in Lyon.

She recently sang the roles of Gisèle (Magnard's Guercœur) at the Opéra national du Rhin in a production by Christof Loy, the title role of La Périchole at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in a production by Laurent Pelly, Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) in a concert performance in Toulon, Fragoletto in Les Brigands at the Opéra National de Paris in a new production by Barrie Kosky, Eros in Ambroise Thomas's Psyché in a concert performance in Budapest, and Carmen in Lausanne.

In addition to her stage presence, Antoinette Dennefeld is recognized for her ability to interpret the concert repertoire. She recently sang the mezzo-soprano solo in Berlioz's Melodies irlandaises with the OCNA and in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde at the Avignon Opera. She will soon sing Berlioz's Cléopâtre with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto.

She also appears in recordings of La Clemenza di Tito for Alpha Classics, La Princesse de Trébizonde for OperaRara, and numerous recordings by the Palazetto BruZane Foundation, the latest of which was released in October 2025: Psyché by Ambroise Thomas, in which she sings the role of Eros.

She recently made her debut at the Teatro Regio in Turin in the title role of Cenerentola and as Mère Marie in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites.

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Born and raised in Zurich, where he also completed his studies, he began his international theatrical career as an assistant stage director at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and the Zurich Opera House. He later joined the prestigious Aix-en-Provence Festival as Production Director, where he gained his first formative experience in the world of international festivals.

Over the following decades, he built an international career as a stage director, creating more than 150 productions across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. For twelve years, he served as Artistic Director of Opera Ireland in Dublin.

In 2010, he founded the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival in Ireland, where he has served as Artistic Director ever since. Since 2012, he has been General Director of Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn (TOBS!), shaping the identity of this bilingual institution as a vibrant centre for opera, theatre, and concerts.

His commitment to Switzerland’s cultural life is further reflected in his roles as President of the Swiss Theatre Association (UTS) and member of the board of orchester.ch, two organisations dedicated to representing and promoting the interests of the performing arts and orchestral music in Switzerland. He is also regularly invited to serve on the juries of international singing competitions.

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After studying at the University of Cambridge, the English conductor Adrian Kelly became a member of the Royal Opera House Young Artists Programme, then a coach at the Hamburg State Opera.

He worked regularly at the Salzburg Festival, assisting Ingo Metzmacher on Luigi Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore and Wolfgang Rihm’s Dionysos. He has also worked with conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Mark Elder, Peter Schneider, Nicola Luisotti, Philippe Jordan and Simone Young. He has been Musical Director of the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival since 2015.

His engagements include appearances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and a tour of the United States conducting the baroque orchestra for The Infernal Comedy with actor John Malkovich. In summer 2014, he conducted a new production of Le nozze di Figaro at Central City Opera in Colorado.

From 2010 to 2017, he served as Principal Guest Conductor at the Salzburg National Theatre, working regularly with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. He conducted many productions in Salzburg, including Krenek’s Jonny spielt auf, Verdi’s Rigoletto and Massenet’s Werther. In February 2016, he conducted the critically acclaimed Austrian première of Charles Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain. Recent Salzburg highlights include Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel at the Felsenreitschule, and Puccini’s La bohème at the Haus für Mozart. In the 2018–19 season, he conducted Massenet’s Manon and a cycle of Mozart’s three Da Ponte operas at the Landestheater.

In June 2018, Adrian Kelly was appointed Artistic Director of the Buxton Festival. In his first season, he conducted a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

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General and Artistic Director — NOF – Nouvel Opéra Fribourg – Neue Oper Freiburg

Born in Buenos Aires, Leandro Suarez is the General and Artistic Director of NOF – Nouvel Opéra Fribourg – Neue Oper Freiburg. He began his musical studies in clarinet at the age of eight, later complementing this training with studies in economics and administration.

Between 1997 and 2002, he was involved in organizing major international festivals in Argentina, including the International Double Reed Society Festival and the Buenos Aires International Music Festival. In 2002, he moved to Switzerland to further his clarinet studies in Lugano and Basel, where he obtained a Concert Diploma, while also completing training in recording techniques and production. He later earned a Diploma in Cultural Management awarded jointly by the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva.

From 2004 to 2012, he served as principal clarinetist of the Orchestre Musique des Lumières under the artistic direction of Facundo Agudin, before gradually transitioning into cultural institution management. Beginning in 2010, he became the orchestra’s artistic coordinator and produced several major opera productions, including Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Verdi’s La Traviata, as well as the world premiere of A. Pflüger’s Romulus der Grosse and the international tour of Henze’s El Cimarrón, notably presented at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

At the same time, he developed artistic collaborations in Spain with the Opéra de Cámara de Navarra, producing operatic works presented at venues such as the Teatro Gayarre (Pamplona), Teatro Arriaga (Bilbao), and Teatro de la Zarzuela (Madrid). He also co-founded Colectivo E7.2, the organization behind After Cage, the first artistic experimentation festival in Pamplona, which he directed during its first four editions from 2014 to 2017.

A recognized record producer, Leandro has produced numerous albums distributed internationally in collaboration with labels such as OehmsClassics (Universal), Doron Music, IBS Classical, and NEOS Music, including Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis. He also oversaw the visual production of the opening concert of the prestigious Schwetzingen Festival in 2015, as well as the video production of Britten’s War Requiem for the Argentine National Symphony Orchestra in Buenos Aires.

After directing the Nouveau Monde cultural center in Fribourg and the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, he joined NOF in 2022, becoming its General and Artistic Director in 2025. In this role, he has contributed to the development of European co-productions with La Monnaie, the Royal Danish Opera, the Royal Opera House, and the Irish National Opera, while also establishing professional integration programs with HEMU – Haute École de Musique Vaud Valais Fribourg.

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Giada Marsadri studied musicology in Milan and Berlin and holds a degree from the University of Milan. She worked for the Cultural Department of RSI (SRG SSR) as a producer and presenter of music programmes for both radio and television.

After serving as Artistic Coordinator of LuganoMusica, the concert season of LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, she joined the Swiss Federal Office of Culture in Bern, where she was notably responsible for the Swiss Music Prizes and for national music promotion programmes.

Since 2024, she has been Co-Director and Artistic Director of Noda BCVS, a concert and congress venue, where she designs and develops a season of around twenty concerts spanning symphonic music, recitals, and chamber music, collaborating with nationally and internationally renowned artists.

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After a career spanning more than fifteen years on opera stages across Europe, Julie Martin du Theil now dedicates her expertise to supporting the next generation of artists. A former soprano, she performed an extensive repertoire in leading opera houses, bringing to her current work both profound artistic insight and extensive practical experience. Today, she guides young performers through the complexities of career development, providing comprehensive support at every stage of their professional journey.

Julie has an in-depth knowledge of the voice and operatic repertoire, as well as extensive expertise in artists’ contract management. She is the co-founder of ArteMIS, a boutique artists’ agency established in 2024. The agency specialises in the international management of opera singers, with a strong focus on building and sustaining long-term careers. Through a highly personalised approach, ArteMIS works with a select group of artists, ensuring that each career develops in line with the artist’s individual goals and artistic ambitions.

As a soprano, her career brought her to major opera houses including Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Theater Karlsruhe, Opéra de Rouen Normandie, Welsh National Opera, and Opéra de Lausanne. Her roles include Sandrina in La finta giardiniera, Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Despina in Così fan tutte, and the First Nymph in Rusalka. On screen, she portrayed the title role of Émilienne in Noces, Philippe Béziat’s film inspired by Stravinsky’s Les Noces.

She also gained extensive experience as a permanent ensemble member at Theater Magdeburg from 2010 to 2019. During this period, she performed a wide-ranging repertoire, including Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Norina in Don Pasquale, Musetta in La Bohème, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Frau Fluth in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor.

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Julie Martin du Theil began her musical training at the Conservatoire de Lausanne, where she earned master's degrees in Performance and Music Pedagogy. She continued her postgraduate vocal studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Munich. In addition to her artistic training, she holds an Executive Master in Arts Administration from the University of Zurich and a law degree from the University of Geneva. She is fluent in French, English, German, and Italian.

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Born in Switzerland in 1971, Alain Perroux studied literature at the University of Geneva (musicology and German literature), choral conducting with Michel Corboz, and singing at the Geneva Conservatory. After eight years as a music journalist, first at the Journal de Genève and then for Le Temps, he became dramaturg at the Grand Théâtre de Genève from 2001 to 2009. He then served as Director of Artistic Administration and dramaturg at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

In 1998, he devised a version of Ibsen and Grieg’s Peer Gynt for actors and singers with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. The recording (Aeon/Harmonia Mundi) received several distinctions (Diapason d’or of the year, “Choc” from Le Monde de la musique). He also staged the spoken dialogues in three languages with actors such as Lambert Wilson, Susanne Lothar and Sir Derek Jacobi. This concert version has since been performed in Prague, Essen, Cologne, Dortmund, London, Vienna, Graz, Limoges and Montpellier.

He has published introductory books on opera (L’Opéra, mode d’emploi, 2000 and 2015) and on American musical theatre (La Comédie musicale, mode d’emploi, 2009), as well as the monographs Frank Martin and Franz Schreker, and he has edited several collective works.

From 2003 to 2011, he led the Opéra de Poche de Genève, an independent company through which he presented (production and staging) in several cities of French-speaking Switzerland: Impressions de Pelléas (Debussy) in 2004 and 2011, La Calisto (Cavalli) in 2006, and Sweeney Todd (Sondheim) in 2008 and 2009.

For the creation of Contes de la lune vague après la pluie, he wrote his first opera libretto. In 2015, he also produced the French adaptation of Jonathan Dove’s The Monster in the Maze, created by Simon Rattle at the Aix Festival, as well as the dialogue adaptations for Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers and La Belle Hélène for Opéra national de Lorraine.

General Director of Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg since 2020, Pascal Perroux will take up the position of General Director of the Grand Théâtre de Genève from the 2026–2027 season.

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Born in Stuttgart, Christoph Seuferle studied opera directing at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, graduating with distinction in 1989 with a Magister Artium degree. He began his career as an assistant stage director and stage manager at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich before joining the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

From 1994 to 2001, he served as Director of Planning and Stage Operations at the Opéra National de Paris. He then joined the Opéra National de Montpellier as Executive Director, where he was responsible for the company's overall budget, a staff of 140, and its artistic programme. During his tenure, he initiated numerous international co-productions, notably with Deutsche Oper Berlin (Médée by Cherubini) and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Rinaldo and Dido and Aeneas).

Since the 2007/08 season, Christoph Seuferle has served as Opera Director of Deutsche Oper Berlin. He also acted as Interim General Director during the 2011/12 season and will once again assume responsibility as General Director for the company's 2025/26 season.

In recognition of his contribution to French cultural life, he was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2001.

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Born in Perth, Scotland, Stuart Patterson studied singing first in Glasgow, then in London, Paris, and Florence. The teachers who influenced him most were David Pollard, Claudio Desderi, Peggy Bouveret, Anna Reynolds, Graham Clark, and Peter Pears.

Awarded a scholarship by the French government, he joined the Groupe Vocal de France and collaborated with composers such as Berio, Kagel, Xenakis, Eötvös, and Dusapin. In 1989, he became a member of the company of the Teatro Verdi di Pisa, where he performed from 1989 to 1996, singing mainly Mozart, Rossini, and Monteverdi under the direction of Maestro Desderi. He later specialized in character tenor roles, performing in some of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including Paris, Turin, Bern, Lisbon, Bergen, Palermo, Lyon, Mexico City, Bregenz, Florence, and Marseille.

Notable engagements include the Aix-en-Provence Festival (Le Nez), the Staatsoper Berlin (Madama Butterfly), Lübeck (Siegfried), Geneva (Andrea Chénier, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Lausanne (Die lustigen Weiber, La Vie Parisienne, Candide…), the Royal Opera House in London (Werther and Carmen), and Budapest (Falstaff, Ariadne auf Naxos, Poppea). In 2014, he performed the role of Herod in Richard Strauss’s Salome in Taipei.

In September 2026, he will sing the role of Monostatos (Die Zauberflöte) with the Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by Iván Fischer, in Budapest, Vicenza, and Baden-Baden.

Stuart Patterson was Professor of Voice at the Geneva–Neuchâtel University of Music (HEM) from 2012 to 2024. Today, he gives numerous workshops and masterclasses. Until 2020, he was the artistic director of the Festival Lyrique de Montperreux (France), which he founded in 2009. He has also directed around ten productions, including Britten’s Noye’s Fludde and Krása’s Brundibár.
 
 

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Drawn from an early age to the close relationship between text and music, pianist Marine Thoreau La Salle developed a deep passion for the vocal repertoire. She studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in vocal accompaniment and vocal coaching, graduating with two First Prizes awarded unanimously.

She was soon engaged as a répétiteur and vocal coach by major institutions including the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Opéra-Comique in Paris, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Opéra de Dijon, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra de Lausanne, Nouvel Opéra de Fribourg, and the Pulsations Festival in Bordeaux with Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion.

A valued musical partner for singers, she also maintains an active recital career, performing in voice-and-piano recitals at venues such as the Opéra-Comique in Paris and the Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice.

Passionate about the stage, she has also developed a significant presence in musical theatre. At the Opéra-Comique, she created La Petite Balade aux Enfers with director Valérie Lesort, inspired by Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and later appeared on television as the tormented pianist in Le Cabaret Horrifique. With Arnaud Marzorati and Les Lunaisiens, she created On n'est pas là pour chanter des Cantiques, L'Estaminet lyrique, and La Vipère du Trottoir with soprano Magali Léger, notably at the Musée d'Orsay and the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux. With Olivier Martin-Salvan, she collaborated on La Caballe rebondissante alongside Lea Desandre and Marc Mauillon. In 2025, she premiered Georges et Carmen, a lyric cabaret inspired by Jean Rousselot’s novel, with mezzo-soprano Leana Durney.

A specialist in the French operatic repertoire, Marine Thoreau La Salle is also in high demand as a vocal coach. Since 2011, she has maintained a close collaboration with the Opéra-Comique in Paris, serving as Head of Musical Studies for the Académie Favart singers and as principal vocal coach for the company's productions. In 2021, she joined the Haute École de Musique de Genève as a vocal coach. In 2024, she was invited to work with the artists of the Irish National Opera Studio. In 2025, she joined baritone Stéphane Degout and Darrell Babidge (The Juilliard School) as a faculty member for the 25th Academy of the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

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