Maggio a Parigi

Salle Pleyel

• Tue 4 Nelson Freire, Schumann and Chopin - a monthly fix of Chopin in the year of Chopin by one of the world's best living pianists
• Thu 6 Rolando Villazon and Lucy Crowe for an all-Handel concert together with Gabrieli Consort & Paul McCreesh
• Fri 7 Genady Rozhdestvensky will conduct l'Orchestre de Paris for a 'dark' Russian evening: Korsakov's concertos followed by Ivan the Terrible by Prokofiev with Larissa Diadkova and a local chorus
• Mon 10 Joshua Bell recital
• Mon 17 Manfred Honeck will come to Paris with his Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to accompany Anne-Sophie Mutter for a Violin Concerto by Brahms and then to deliver their best in the Shostakovich's Symphony #5
• Tue 18 Venice Baroque Orchestra to support the baroque recital by Patricia Petibon
• Wed 19 Orchestre de Paris will be conducted by our fave Hartmut Haenchen. Program: Schnittke, Martinu and the Beethoven's 5th
• Fri 21 Concert version of a terrific opera by Rachmaninov, Francesca da Rimini. Alexander Vedernikov will be conducting
• Thu 27 and Fri 28 Orchestre de Paris and Ensemble intercontemporain will be performing under the baton of Pierre Boulez. Check out a very innovative, original and promising program
• Sat 29 Denis Matsuev for one more all-Russian program, this time with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Leonard Slatkin [will he know the score? ;)]
  
• Sun 30 Incorronazione di Poppea, by Les Arts Florissants and maestro William Christie. The cast includes Philippe Jaroussky, Max Emanuel Cencic, Anna Bonitatibus, Danielle de Niese...
  

Théatre des Champs-Elysées

• Wed 5,Fri 7, Sun 9, Tue 11, Fri 14 La Calisto, an opera by Pietro Francesco Cavalli. In this new production directed by Macha Makeieff, Les Talens Lyiques lead by Christophe Rousset will accompany a wonderful cast including Lawrence Zazzo, Véronique Gens, Sophie Karthäuser, Giovanni Battista Parodi,...
• Thu 13 The Münchner Philharmoniker with Christian Thielemann for a posh concert consisting of the Bruckner Symphonie #5 and a fugue by Bach/Schoenberg
• Sun 16 Natalie Dessay with Topi Lehtipuu and Ludovic Tézier for a charity event (will Natalie show up?)
• Mon 17 Die Sächsische Staatskapelle from Dresden are coming to perform the music by R.Strauss. For the Rosenkavalier part there will be a top notch cast with Genia Kühmeier, Anne Schwanewilms, and Bernarda Fink. After his spat with the Semperoper management,  Fabio Luisi will obviously not conduct. George Prêtre should be an OK replacement
• Wed 19 One of the world's best orchestra, and probably the most underrated right now, Rotterdams  Philharmonisch Orkest with a super-telented Yannick Nézet-Séguin for an evening with eclectic program
• Fri 21 David Frey with Orchestre National de France lead by Danielle Gatti & a very promising program
• Tue 25, Fri 28, Sat 29 Le Nozze di Figaro, a small production directed by Pierre Constant and with Jean-Claude Malgoire conducting his ensemble
• Thu 27 One more night of fine musical moments with Maestro Daniele Gatti
  

Théâtre du Châtelet

• Sun 9  Jerusalem Quartet will perform the works by Janacek, Schubert and Mozart
• Mon 18 - Sat 22 Five shows of Magdalena, an opera/musical by Heitor Villa-Lobos(*). This new production is directed by Kate Whoriskey. Check out the link for more details

Opéra national de Paris - Opéra Bastille

• Mon 3, Sat 8, Mon 10, Thu 13, Sat 15 Five more shows of the Francesca Zambello's production of Billy Budd. A refreshing  show in an otherwise dry and uninspiring season at the Paris Opera. Wholeheartedly recommended for its cast and for the goodness of the production
• Fri 7, Sun 9, Mon 17, Thu 20, Sun 23, Wed 26 Revival of the Robert Carsen's production of Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Jesus Lopez-Cobos will conduct the Paris Opera Orchestra and the soiloists Laura Aikin, Inva Mula, Ekaterina Gubanova, Béatrice Uria-Monzon, Giuseppe Filianoti and others
• Mon 31 New production of Die Walkure directed by Günter Krämer and Philippe Jordan in charge for musical excellence. The cast includes: Robert Dean Smith, Falk Struckmann, Katarina Dalayman, Ricarda Merbeth, Yvonne Naef, Günther Groissböck and other fine singers

Opéra national de Paris - Palais Garnier

• May 2 Soile Isokoski for a chic-recital at the Palais Garnier. Note a very generous and highly interesting program

Opéra Comique 

• Wed 12, Fri 14, Sun 16, Tue 18 Les Boulingrin is a new opera comique by Georges Aperghis - creation. Jérôme Deschamps will direct the show and the magnificent Klangforum Wien orchestra will be conducted by Jean Deroyer. Soloists: Lionel Peintre, Doris Lamprecht, Jean-Sébastien Bou, et al.

Cité de la Musique

• Tue 4 Baroque Alert: New London Consort with Philip Pickett are coming to perform Acis and Galatea  by Handel with Ed Lyon, Joanne Lunn and others
• Wed 5 A Liederabend with Nathalie Stutzmann singing the Schubert's Schoene Muellerin. Inger Södergren, piano
• Thu 6 Ensemble intercontemporain conducted by a superb Susanna Mälkki will perform the music by Kaija Saariaho, Bent Sorensen, and George Benjamin
• Tue 18 Les Dissonances and David Grimal perform Vivaldi and Piazzolla
• Tue 25 A Liederabend with Accentus and Ensemble Orchestral conducted by Laurence Equelbey. Renata Pokupic and Werner Güra will be the soloists and the program includes the songs by Brahms, Reger, Webern... and Franck Krawczyk
• Sat 29 Ivan Fischer will conduct the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the phenomenal Julia Fischer. Italo-German Mix on the program.

Musée du Louvre

• Wed 26: Boris Berezovsky, always passionate piano-recitals by this big man. This time the program includes the works by Lyadov and Rachmanonov

Musée d'Orsay

• Tue 11 Talent alert: Edwin Crossley-Mercer, recital (Semjon Skigin, piano)  
• Thu 27 Laurent Naouri, recital (David Abramovitz, piano)

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(*) Incidentally this last Saturday I saw the place where Heitor Villa-Lobos lived in Paris  from 1923-1930. It's just around the corner (on your right) from the St.Michel fountain! Proof: