Tour di maggio a Parigi

Salle Pleyel

• Tue 10: Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev will perform the Shostakovich's 9th and Vadim Repin will add Violin Concerto no.2 by Prokofiev 
• Wed 11: Radu Lupu, piano recital (pieces by Schumann and Schubert) 
• Tue 17: Samson et Dalila (in concert), cond- Tugan Sokhiev (Orchestre et Choeur du Capitole de Toulouse), cast: Olga Borodina, Ben Heppner, Tómas Tómasson, Nicolas Testé... 
• Wed 18 and Thu 19: Paavo Järvi will conduct Orchestre de Paris and Gautier Capuçon (cello) & Thierry Escaich (organ) in a program including pieces by Dvorak and Escaich, as well as the Symphony no.3 by Saint-Saëns  
• Fri 20: Alexandre Tharaud will play the piano concerto no.23 by Mozart and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France will add the Symph. no. 11 by Shostakovich 
• Sat 21: Daniel Barenboim is back with West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Program: Symphony no. 10 by Mahler and no. 3 by Beethoven 
• Wed 25: Leif Ove Andsnes will perform the piano concerto no.2 by Brahms and Orchestre de Paris will add the Symph. no. 7 by Dvorák 
• Thu 26: always excellent Julia Fischer -- violin concerto by Dvorák and Orch. Philh. du Luxembourg conducted by Emmanuel Krivine will add a piece by Pascal Dusapin and Stravinsky's Petrushka (version 1947) 
• Fri 25: more violin -- Nikolaj Znaider will play the violin concerto no.2 by Mozart and then will conduct the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (OPRF) in a performance of Mendelssohn's 3rd
• Mon 30: still violin - now with Christian Tetzlaff who will play the violin concerto by Mendelssohn, and then the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas will add Beethoven's 5th  
• Tue 31: my fave Mahler's symphony - No.2 by  San Francisco Symphony, with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting and the soloists: Laura Claycomb, Katarina Karneus.

Théatre des Champs-Elysées

• Mon 2: Gautier Capuçon and Jean-Yves Thibaudet prepare an interesting program 
• Tue 3: Il Trovatore (in concert), cnd- Emmanuel Joel-Hornak (Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine), cast: Elza van den Heever, Elena Manistina, Giuseppe Gipali... 
• Wed 4: Stabat mater by Vivaldi/Pergolesi with Sara Mingardo and Veronica Cangemi. Andrea Marcon will conduct Venice Baroque Orchestra 
• Thu 5 and Sat 7: Mass by Beethoven, with Colin Davis conducting Orchestre National de France and the soloists: Nathalie Manfrino, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Steve Davislim, Nicolas Courjal 
• Mon 9: Hommage à Farinelli: arias from operas by de Broschi, J.Ch. Bach, Porpora, Giacomelli, Leo - sung by Ann Hallenberg.  Christophe Rousset will conduct Les Talens Lyriques 
• Tue 10: Staatskapelle Dresden will perform Brahms' Symphony n°1 under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. Gidon Kremer will chip in with a violin concerto 
• Wed 11: Louis Langrée will conduct Camerata Salzburg - program: 3 symphonies by Mozart
• Thu 12: Orchestre National de France lead by James Conlon will perform the Symph. no.5 by Shostakovich. Daniel Hope will add a violin concerto by Britten 
• Fri 13, Sat 14, Sun 15: Philharmonia Orchestra with maestro Lorin Maazel. 1st night: Symph. no. 6 by Mahler; 2nd night: no.7; 3rd night: no.5 
• Mon 16: Nicholas Angelich, piano recital - Variations Goldberg by Bach  
• Wed 18: Aldo Ciccolini, piano recital - Mozart, Liszt  
• Thu 19 and Sat 21: I due foscari (in concert), cnd-Daniele Callegari  (Orchestre National de France), cast: Anthony Michaels-Moore, Ramon Vargas... 
• Fri 20: Denis Matsuev, piano recital - Schubert, Beethoven, Liszt and Rachmaninoff 
• Mon 23: Ariodante (in concert), cnd- Alan Curtis (Il Complesso Barocco), cast: Joyce DiDonato, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Karina Gauvin, Sabina Puertolas, Matthew Brook, Nicholas Phan, Paolo Borgonovo  
• Wed 25: Les Vêpres siciliennes (excerpts), cnd- Gianandrea Noseda  [Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Regio di Torino], cast: Sondra Radvanovsky, Gregory Kunde, Franco Vassallo, Michele Pertusi

Opéra national de Paris - Opéra Bastille

• Fri 13, Tue 17, Sat 21, Mon 23, Thu 26, Sat 28, Tue 31: Le Nozze di Figaro [dir- "Giorgio Strehler", cnd- Dan Ettinger, cast: Christopher Maltman, Dorothea Röschmann, Julia Kleiter , Erwin Schrott, Isabel Leonard...] 
• Mon 2, Thu 5, Sun 8, Wed 11, Sat 14, Wed 18: Tosca [dir- Werner Schroeter, cnd- Renato Palumbo, cast: Iano Tamar, Massimo Giordano, Franck Ferrari...]
   

Opéra Comique 

• Thu 12, Fri 13, Sun 15, Mon 16, Wed 18, Thu 19, Sat 21: Atys by Lully [dir- Jean-Marie Villégier, cnd- William Christie, cast: Bernard Richter, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Emmanuelle de Negri, Nicolas Rivenq, Jaël Azzaretti, Paul Agnew, Cyril Auvity...]
• Fri 27, Sat 28: Parlez-moi d'amour [dir- Laurent Pelly], Felicity Lott will sing a mélange of melodies by Reynaldo Hahn, Jerome Kern, André Messager, Jacques Offenbach...
  
  

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.

Cité de la Musique

• Sat 14, Sun 15: L'Autre monde (after Cyrano de Bergerac), 17th century music -- a show performed by Ensemble La Rêveuse, adapted and directed by Benjamin Lazar and Romain Juhel  
• Wed 18:   Ensemble intercontemporain conducted by Jean-Michaël Lavoie will accompany the projection of the newly remastered copy of Metropolis by Fritz Lang 
• Sat 21: Brussels Philharmonic with Michel Tabachnik  conducting -- program: Atmosphères by Ligeti, Zarathustra by Strauss, and a suite by Khachaturyan 
• Tue 24: Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Pierre-Laurent Aimard  conducting and playing piano will perform music by Mozart and Bach, and will finish by Prokofiev's Classical Symphony 
• Wed 25: Amel Brahim-Djelloul will sing the Mediterranean music (might be great) 
• Sat 28: Jordi Savall, and his Hespèrion XXI will perform Mare nostrum 
• Tue 31: Another Mare Nostrum -- this time by Mauricio Kagel -- performed by Ensemble 2e2m and La Péniche Opéra with Pierre Roullier  conducting. Cast: Dominique Visse, Vincent Bouchot
  

Musée d'Orsay

• Thu 19: Yann Beuron and Jennifer Smith to sing the French songs by Debussy, Ravel, de Bréville, D'Indy, Hahn, Fauré. Graham Johnson, on piano 
• Thu 26: Stéphanie d'Oustrac and Jean-Paul Fouchécourt will continue in the same repertoire

Athenée  Théâtre 

• Thu 5, Fri 6, Sat 7, Sun 8: Dido and Aeneas [dir- Bernard Lévy, cnd- Sébastien d'Hérin, cast: Isabelle Druet, Agathe Boudet, Arnaud Guillou, Sarah Jouffroy, Fiona Mc Gown]

Come un Bel Dì di Maggio: Paris - Stravinsky - Niki de Saint Phalle

If you didn't get to listen to Stacey Kent singing French songs you definitely should. Here is her take on Les eaux de mars -- actually a French version of the Brazilian song Aguas de março, adapted by Georges Moustaki (Greek Jewish, born in Egypt, later became French) -- in which she employs her delicious accent to give this song an extra multi-cultural dimension.