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INTRODUCTION
With his warm baritone, refined musicianship, and curiosity for rediscovering forgotten gems, Jérôme Boutillier has become one of the most fascinating French singers of his generation. From accompanying himself in Schubert’s Winterreise to bringing rarely performed operas back to life with Palazzetto Bru Zane, he combines tradition with bold artistic choices. In this conversation with Alice Lechner, he reflects on his journey from pianist to opera star, the challenges of his most demanding roles, and the enduring charm of opera today.
BIOGRAPHY
Jerome Boutillier's future and recent projects include Conte in Le Nozze di Figaro at Paris National Opera, Zurga Les pêcheurs de perles in Massy, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut in Lyon, Jupiter Orphée aux enfers in Tours, Count Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro in Savonlinna Festival, Johanaan Salome and Heerrufer in Lohengrin at Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse, Escamillo in Carmen at Baalbeck Festival in Lebanon, Méphistophélès in Faust at Opéra Comique in Paris and at Opera de Lille, Albert in Werther in Genoa, Fieramosca in Benvenuto Cellini in Dresden, Athanaël in Thaïs in Saint-Etiene, Marquis de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites in Rouen, concerts at Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, with Gewandhaus Orchester in Leipzig, Les Talens Lyriques at Philharmonie de Paris, at the Puccini Festival with Anna Netrebko in Torre del Lago and Ljubljana, among others. Recent appearances also include debut as Escamillo in Carmen at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Nelusko in L’Africaine and Germont at Seine Musicale in Paris and Opéra de Marseille, Escamillo at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Ben Saïd in Le Tribut de Zamora in Saint-Etienne, Baron De Gondremarck in La Vie Parisienne in Montpellier and Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège (recorded for the Palazzetto Bru Zane), Hagen in Sigurd by Ernest Reyer, Karnac in Le Roi d’Ys with Palazzetto Bru Zane in Budapest, solo concerts in Toulouse, Luxembourg, and with Anna Netrebko in Paris, Budapest, Vienna, Sofia, Linz, Teatro Real in Madrid, and in Bucharest. Jerome Boutillier gained huge success as Hamlet in Saint-Etienne, sang Marcello in La Bohème in Toulouse and the Duke in Roméo et Juliette at the Paris National Opera, returned to Saint-Etienne and Opéra Comique in Paris as Luddorf in La nonne sanglante by Gounod, sang Zurga in the Pearlfishers, Ralph in La Jolie Fille de Perth, Rodrigo in Don Carlo in Marseille, Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride in Rouen, Albert in Werther in Montpellier, Valentin in Faust and Don Giovanni at Marmande Festival, Parker in Les Éclairs by Ph. Hersant and Capulet in Roméo et Juliette at Opéra Comique, and Valentin at the Opéra de Québec. His discography sums 8 CDs, produced by the Palazzetto Bru Zane and Aparté. He recorded Philoctète in Déjanire by Saint-Saëns with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic orchestra. Forthcoming releases are Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys, Cardonne's Omphale, and La Nonne Sanglante - on DVD by Naxos. Further past engagements include appearances with Opera Genève, Opéra de Versailles, Toulon, Opéra National de Lorraine, Chorégies d'Orange Festival. Originally trained as a pianist and vocal coach, Jérôme Boutillier is an ADAMI Revelation and a Prize Winner at the 2019 Paris Opera Competition at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. He practices lieder (Winterreise) in recital, self-accompanied sung from the piano.
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INTERVIEW
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Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.
Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.
Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.
She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.
Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.
Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.
Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.
His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.
During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.
He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.
Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.
She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.
She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.
Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.
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