October... and the trees are stripped bare

Classical October in Paris looks busy [I guess I should reiterate that the following is my selection of events (classical music and opera) to see in Paris.]

Salle Pleyel

• Tue 5: Elina Garanca comes to give her yearly concert in Paris. This time at Playel with Latvian National Symphony and her husband conducting
• Wed 6 and Thu 7: Mikko Franck to conduct Orchestre de Paris - Debussy, Ravel and the Tchaiko's 4th 
• Fri 8: One of the most amazing contemporary composers, Peter Eötvös, will conduct Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Program looks interesting and Agneta Eichenholz will sing an excerpt from Lulu
• Wed 13 and Thu 14: Phenomenal Vadim Repin is back to Pleyel to perform with Orchestre de Paris and maestro Paavo Järvi 
• Sat 16 and Sun 17: Eric Le Sage and Ébène Quartet -- don't miss this if you're in Paris or around! 
• Mon 18: Orquestra Gulbenkian is visiting Pleyel to  accompany Aldo Ciccolini in Beethoven Piano Concerto #4 
• Wed 20: This should be the event of the month -- Maestro Claudio Abbado visiting Pleyel with his Lucerne Festival Orchestra to perform Mahler's 9th 
• Fri 22: Charity concert with Inva Mula, Béatrice Uria-Monzon, Luca Lombardo, Laurent Naouri 
• Sat 23: Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and Sir John Eliot Gardiner are back after their wonderful Pelléas at Opéra Comique in June. If you like Schumann, you may have fun there... 
• Tue 26: Thomas Quasthoff comes to give us his yearly recital with a Mozartian program. Camerata Salzburg will complete the evening by adding the Haydn's Symphony #85
  

Théatre des Champs-Elysées

• Wed 6, Fri 8, and Sun 10: New production of Passion, a contemporary opera-ballet by Pascal Dusapin, coreographed by Sasha Waltz, and with Barbara Hannigan and Georg Nigl singing. 
• Sat 9: Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding to perform Otello by Verdi in concert with our huge fave Anja Harteros as Desdemona. Other singers are Ben Heppner, Franco Vassallo, Alexey Dolgov etc. 
• Mon 11: Lodoïska , an opera in concert by Luigi Cherubini, with Jeremy Rhorer leading his orchestra Le Cercle de L'Harmonie and the cast - Nathalie Manfrino, Hjördis Thébault, Sébastien Guèze etc. 
• Wed 13: Mozart's Requiem with Philippe Herreweghe conducting 
• Thu 14: Jonas Kaufmann with Helmut Deutsch for Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin. That's the kind of program when Kaufmann is at his absolute best. 
• Fri 15: Pierre-Laurent Aimard in one of his always passionate piano recitals 
• Tue 19: Le carnaval de Venise, an opera in concert by André Campra, with Hervé Niquet conducting and the promising cast - Judith van Wanroij, Edwin Crossley-Mercer, Anders J. Dahlin, Marina de Liso... 
• Wed 20: Always impressive Ian Bostridge - recital. Assorted program of baroque arias 
• Thu 21: Amazing Max Emanuel Cencic is back with I Baricchisti and Diego Fasolis for more Handel + Albinoni and Vivaldi 
• Fri 22: Hélène Grimaud, Sat 23: Andrei Korobeinikov, Sun 24: Nikolay Lugansky to perform the cycle of piano pieces by Rachmaninov. Add to that Symphonies by Rachmaninov conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy...
  
  

Théâtre du Châtelet

• Fri 22: Requiem by Verdi with Daniele Gatti conducting his Orchestre National de France, and Krassimira Stoyanova, Ekaterina Gubanova, Stuart Neill, Georg Zeppenfeld
   

Opéra national de Paris - Opéra Bastille

• Sun 3, Wed 6, Sat 9: Der fliegende Höllander [dir Willy Decker, cond Peter Schneider] Cast: Matti Salminen, Klaus Florian Vogt, Adrianne Pieczonka, James Morris, Bernard Richter, Marie-Ange Todorovitch
• Tue 5, Fri 8, Mon 11: Eugene Onegin [dir Willy Decker, cond Vasily Petrenko] Cast: Olga Guryakova, Ludovic Tézier, Joseph Kaiser, Nadine Denize, Alisa Kolosova, Gleb Nikolski, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Ugo Rabec
• Mon 4, Thu 7, Sun 10, Tue 12, Thu 14, Sat 16, Tue 19, Thu 21, Mon 25, Wed 27: Il Trittico [dir Luca Ronconi, cond Philippe Jordan] Huge cast includes Marco Berti, Luciana D’Intino, Ekaterina Syurina, Saimir Pirgu, Juan Pons etc.
• Tue 26, Thu 28, Sun 31: Le Nozze di Figaro, a revival of the 40 years old production [dir Giorgio Strehler (RIP), cond Philippe Jordan] Cast: Ludovic Tézier, Barbara Frittoli, Ekaterina Syurina, Luca Pisaroni, Karine Deshayes...

Opéra national de Paris - Palais Garnier

• Sun 3, Tue 5, Fri 8:
  L'Italiana in Algeri [dir Andrei Serban, cond Maurizio Benini] Cast: Vivica Genaux, Lawrence Brownlee, Marco Vinco, Alessandro Corbelli, Jaël Azzaretti, Cornelia Oncioiu

Cité de la Musique 

• Sat 2: François-Xavier Roth to conduct Les Siècles - music from Russian ballets (Borodine, Stravinsky) 
• Sun 3: François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles - music from Russian ballets (Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Rimski-Korsakov) 
• Tue 5: Ensemble intercontemporain lead by Susanna Mälkki, with Hideki Nagano on piano, program with contemporary music by Kyburz, Borowsky, Jarrell 
• Thu 7: Orchestre National d'Île-de-France conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky will play the music by Shostakovich to accompany the projection of a famous movie by Sergey Eisenstein, October
• Tue 12: A Russian piano phenom Olga Andryushchenko to give a generous recital with all Russian program 
• Wed 13: Gennady Rozhdestvensky will conduct Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken-Kaiserslautern -- Prokofiev's Symphony #2, later on Sasha Rozhdestvensky will join in for the Violin Concerto #2  
• Sat 16: Singers from the Studio Vishnevskaya Moscow will come to perform two unfinished operas by Shostakovich [cond - Dimitry Jurowski]
• Sun 17: Accentus, conducted by Laurence Equilbey, will sing 10 revolutionary poems by Shostakovich 
• Fri 29: Orchestre de Paris will perform a R.Strauss filled program under the baton of Andris Nelsons
   

Musée du Louvre

• Wed 13: Quartet Tetzlaff
  

Musée d'Orsay

• Thu 14: Chorus Maîtrise de Radio France and Astrid Marc on piano -- Lieder by Schumann and Brahms
• Thu 21: Chorus and soloists from Lyon with Noël Lee on piano -- Les cantates du Prix de Rome (by Berlioz, Debussy, Fauré, Charpentier, Thomas, Dutilleux...)
   

Théâtre Athénée

• Sat 23: Edwin Crossley-Mercer, recital of Lieder by Wolf
  

Salle Gaveau

• Mon 11: Laurent Naouri - recital
• Wed 20: Simone Kermes & La Stagione Frankfurt with a Mozart & Telemann program
  

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Of all the places in the world I visited so far, the best non-home-made muffins can be found at Columbus-café in the Parisian quartier, called Le Marais [their Belle Hélène is a yummmmster]

Impossible to explain why it is so but the same muffins in other Columbus cafés are not nearly as tasty as those in the rue Vieille du Temple...