Stephan Grögler has done a remarkable job, both stimulating for the spectator and training for the young singers from whom he demands agility and resistance. He designed a unic setting, a kind of small mountain of micro acting-spaces that communicate together by steps. Thus, with a minimum of curtain falls, the scenes follow one another without interruption and let the profusion of the libretto invade the action.

In Anfossi's opera, the lighting is more direct, while the movements and gestures are ample and lively. In Mozart's, the dramatic rhythm is somewhat slower and the lighting is softened, if only to let the vocality blossom into a kind of still image. A virtuoso staging.

The same scenography unites the two operas without copying them. The production took place in an undetermined 20th century, dotted with armchairs and sofas. From this intertwining of feelings and characters specific to opera-buffa, Stephan Grögler was able to untangle the guidelines and define the characters. Hearts blur, spirits wander, passions cross paths in this ballet for a deceived old fogy, a cunning servant and a desperate valet.

The unique setting is of ingenious simplicity: a kind of hill of sofas and chairs, placed on different levels, which perfectly suggests the different rooms of a vast residence, and which allows the action to unfold smoothly and completely clear. The direction of the actors is efficient, the stage moves with naturalness and conviction, and the stage energy is remarkable.

The director has decided to give a big place to the cembalist, who is placed on stage, dressed in a magnificent pink evening dress and wearing a blond wig, and who will, in addition to ensuring the continuo, launch into a few gags of the most beautiful comic effect that make him a full-fledged protagonist in the success of the show.

In the same settings as the day before, Stephan Grögler's direction clearly marks the qualitative leap between the two versions. The action is more concentrated, more serious, the possibilities of the set are less exploited (it is no longer necessary), and there is no need to introduce an additional character, the cembalist (certainly very funny and an excellent idea) the staging of the Mozart version is much better adapted to the nature of the work.

Stephan Grögler directs both operas. In contemporary sets and costumes, he leads, in the version of Anfossi, the singers in a frantic round using sofa-beds to animate this rather static plot. The young performers are often better actors than singers. To the delight of the audience, the director added a transvestite character, Carlos Aragon, who plays the continuo on stage while entertaining the audience.

Stephan Grögler has chosen a unique setting, a kind of hill, tower of Babel or labyrinth made up of sofas and armchairs placed on terraces. White in Mozart, they are for Anfossi covered with flower fabrics. They are indeed the garden where the action takes place! Convertible sofas also offer possibilities that singers take advantage of in underwear and pijamas. Anfossi is enriched by a transvestite pianist who offers a comic counterpoint to the action.

Pour l’opéra d’Anfossi se déploieront des couleurs, des textures, des costumes issus du vocabulaire du théâtre ambulant et de la commedia dell’arte. Pour Mozart au contraire, le raffinement de couleurs lunaires, nuancier de blancs et de gris perle, aussi bien pour le décor que pour les costumes aux lignes épurées, élégantes, souligneront le caractère éternel des œuvres du compositeur qui a su s’affranchir des avatars des modes et tendances

For Anfossi's opera, colors, textures, costumes from the vocabulary of traveling theater and commedia dell'arte will be displayed. For Mozart, on the other hand, the refinement of lunar colors, with hues of white and pearl gray, both for the set and for the costumes with their refined, elegant lines, will underline the eternal character of the composer's works, who has managed to free himself from the avatars of fashion and trends.

Moments of intense emotion and moving beauty. . . the director chose the sobriety and integrity that were essential in this case and in these places

Heartbraking, shocking, harsh, the White Rose stirs very hard and very deeply. . . Stephan Grögler's staging confirms the qualities of a seasoned master builder never tempted by the ease.

The scenic proposal proves admirably, as it plunges the spectator into a feeling of oppression and anguish, a feeling shared infront of our eyes by the two protagonists, doomed to an imminent death by beheading. The unique setting, designed by the director himself, is reduced to a simple clay floor that is blocked by a high concrete wall. The oozing water punctuates the comings and goings of the two characters in this closed universe from which death perspires (. . . )

In Stephan Grögler's symbolic staging, the two singers touch and share the fate of young people who died for resisting.

Far from the grandiloquence of traditional opera, the director chose proximity and maximum purity.

A effective setting as simple as it is and subtle lighting effects allow dreamlike escapes from this suffocating universe, the cell suddenly becoming a forest, a mountain path or a distant horizon, an intelligent visual equivalent to the lyricism of certain passages of the text. Very well directed on stage and musically, the two singers impress with their youth and physical credibility, their unfailing emotional commitment and their technical mastery.

And this spoken and sung text is carried by only two performers. But what interpreters! Soprano Elizabeth Bailey carries Sophie's torments with incandescence. Baritone Armando Noguera gives all the gravity to Hans' fate. Their interpretation, draped by music in perfect symbiosis, conveys an incredible emotion. Didier Henry's work on shadows and lights perfectly enhances Stephan Grögler's scenography

. . a colorful, sensual and festive atmosphere. . . Imagined with the expressiveness of a fairy tale, inspired by Botero's founding themes. . . . . A light and catchy ode in homage to the Colombian artist.

Albert applauds, as much as Botero, for a real success. The one to give life to the characters so typical of the Colombian painter and sculptor. . . We have the impression that these two characters have just escaped from his paintings. Botero is crying and laughing of emotion.

. . . The evening is an authentic triumph. . .

Stephan Grögler oblige les spectateurs à concentrer leur regard sur les chanteurs-acteurs, obligeant ces derniers à un travail approfondi. On admire un subtil entrelacs de trajectoires individuelles toujours justifiés, et un rythme ponctué tour à tour d’alentissements et de subits élans, qui aboutit à un III où le malaise révolutionnaire aura rarement été saisi avec plus de pertinence. Par les soins de cette excellente production, Lorenzo Da Ponte surgit, toujours aussi vivant.

Une mise en scène atypique pour l’Opéra Confluence, un véritable festin Stephan Grögler en assurait les décors et une mise en scène juste assez « polissonne ». Cette ambiance de « Carnaval » ou de « club privé » à Venise, nous plonge dans une ambiance sulfureuse, troublante mais aussi festive, divertissante et nostalgique d’un temps. Le public ne ménagea pas ses ovations amplement méritées.

Un mariage pour le meilleur… La mise en scène laisse la place aux intermittences du cœur, à la subtilité, à la mélancolie même. Les portes claquent, les gifles volent, on se court après, on se rattrape, on s’épie, on se déguise, on badine érotiquement, on s’aime enfin dans une vie scénique sans emphase, une quotidienneté presque banale, avec heureusement ce climat chargé d’électricité qui fait de cette folle journée, comme alimentée à la gégène, véritablement, une journée de dingue.

C’est fin, intelligent, sans faute de goût, d’un classicisme et modernisme luxueux, réjouissant. Passe bien sûr dans cette mascarade, où nobles et valets restent toujours à leur place, l'ombre de la Règle du Jeu de Renoir, idée première du metteur en scène...

Un spectacle déstructuré, hors du temps, comme si notre société anachronique rassemblait toutes ses époques pour les mettre en carton et les déménager vers d’autres univers. Une forme de décadence avec les femmes légères traversant le plateau en collant et jarretières.

Cette vision de fin d’une époque, où se mêlent jaquettes moirées et perruques aux costumes trois pièces, déroutent quelque peu au premier acte, puis se met en place alors que se succèdent les tableaux dans une maison où règne le fatras annonçant la destruction d’un monde.

An ambitious programm … The space seems want to tell more than the twilight reveals. Even if one sits as a spectator passively in the dark periphery of the bright island, one is in the middle of it. Instead of names here there are sounds. Upwards instead of gravestones anonymous lamp ball bars. Kind of will-o’ the wisp in the darkness; it is a garden without Eden.

Lorenz Hasler and his ensemble with the enchanting soprano Gaëlle Méchaly performed with a high sensitivity . . . a subtly selected and arranged repertoire.

Instead of a sudden shock, we are encouraged to think and feel all the intrinsic beauty of this music. This is surely the most beautiful tribute that « us » the post-war generations can give to the victims of the Nazi regime.

But how do you represent art in hell on a theatre stage? Stephan Grögler probably did the impossible. We are seized, shaken, sometimes even enthusiastic about his staging. Als Ob. . . suggests terror, but unlike a film like R. Polanski's "The Pianist"; or « The Ghetto » of Sobol violence is never shown, it is only suggested, which leaves much deeper traces.

The most astonishing thing about this evening is the total symbiosis that exists between Gaëlle Méchaly, who has a strong personality, and I Salonisti, this ensemble that has been formed for so many years, a communion that they have acquired during rehearsals but also thanks to their artistic maturity that allows this unity on stage.

Gaëlle Méchaly plays the role inimitably. The depth and diversity of the emotional expressions she depicts is indescribable. An incredible voice capable of modulation, from outcry to the most breathy pianissimo in the concluding lullaby, from folk song to art song. The artist has

A 90-minute program that gets under your skin. It's incredibly deep, this particulary atmosphere. . . says a spectator And a woman adds It was beautiful. I was very agitated, I almost had tears"

UN TRIOMPHE ! surtout pour Stephan Grögler qui nous a transporté avec beaucoup de fantaisie et d’humour à un tempo effréné, dans le monde des contes de fées. Tout ce qui avait disparu dans l’opéra de Rossini ,le merveilleux et le surnaturel de la féerie du conte de Cendrillon, chez Grögler nous le retrouvons avec subtilité et humour en clins d’oeil. Les frontières entre opéra fiction et réel se confondent en permanence. Le spectateur tourtour à tour s’émerveille et rit.

Stephan Grögler réveille Cendrillon. Une réussite qui tient surtout à la somptuosité des décors et au rythme haletant de l’action... et au jeu d’acteur très poussé.

Le triomphe de la Cenerentola. Le chef-d’œuvre mis en scène par Grögler est à voir résolument ! Cette nouvelle production laisse un sentiment de bonheur, de joie tout enfantine et profonde, en même temps qu’elle marque une vraie réussite. Réussite en premier lieu d’un metteur en scène et concepteur de décor riche d’idées originales, de talent et d’imagination.

Il y a tant d’intelligence et la transparence du propos sont constamment au rendez-vous, et le luxe du détail emporte dans un courant d’inspiration continue. L’enfance relue. Grögler déploie ses décors, fait arpenter les protagonistes en lignes simples, de grandes horizontales, perpendiculaires, verticales et autres diagonales. Pour touffue qu’elle paraisse de prime abord, la démarche se révèle infiniment pure et claire.

Par ailleurs, les miroirs encadrent la scène représentent une belle trouvaille. Comme la machinerie baroque du Haydn précèdent, les rouages, les coulisses, les apartés, les apparitions, les disparitions ainsi montrés, dévoilés, explicités produisent un effet multiplicateur bienvenu. Tout cela, en fin de compte, renvoie à un érotique délicieux, relève de l’imaginaire et vient le combler.

Pour un peu on se dirait aussi chez Alice au pays des merveilles, plus simplement dans un conte de fées où apparaissent le Petit Chaperon rouge, le grand méchant loup, la sorcière, les nains et des choristes-laquais qui sortent et rentrent d’une boîte magique. Tous les protagonistes portent de merveilleux costumes signés Véronique Seymat, qui semble s’être rappelée les lectures de l’enfance.

Et jusqu'à sa rencontre avec le prince, Angelina - Cendrillon se déploie dans cet imaginaire, alors que ses soeurs se vautrent sur un lit, se peignent les ongles, écoutent des disques au casque ou regardent la télévision... ... salué une fois le rideau tombé par des ovations, des hourras et des bravos à n’en plus finir. En un mot comme en cent, voici une Cendrillon à laquelle il faut courir.

L’opéra de Lausanne a envoûté son public avec la nouvelle production de Cenerentola. La première fut un succès immense. Le public de Lausanne était enthousiasmé comme il ne l’avait plus été depuis longtemps.... une Cenerentola avec une vision toute nouvelle.. Le metteur en scène Stephan Grögler réussit là un tour de magie. Il impose sa vision de cette pièce sans trahir la musique de Rossini ni son livret.

Tout fonctionne a merveille ; certains moments de l’opéra nous paraissent plus clairs, plus évidentes. Le metteur en scène fait éclater un feux d’artifice quasi permanent. Les ensembles musicaux, bienaimés de Rossini sont repris par les chanteurs sous forme de chorégraphie ingénieuse.

Du pur bonheur : une « Cenerentola » somptueuse, ludique, fine, gourmande de plaisir et d’humour. Avec à-propos et délicatesse, le metteur en scène Stephan Grögler (décidément génial) convoque fées, sorcières, nains et Chaperon rouge à une fête sonore et visuelle qui se déguste avec ravissement. Les clins d’œil scintillent de partout, toujours avec à-propos, jubilation et tendresse.

Ce spectacle aux ficelles et à la machinerie de scène complexes mais parfaitement maîtrisées se constitue de plusieurs couches, comme les contes. Il fait rire et sourire sans pour autant malmener la musique. Il mériterait amplement d’être vu et repris, ici et ailleurs, comme un beau livre ou une boîte à jouets qui, simplement parce qu’on les ouvre, parviennent à déclencher les rouages de l’imaginaire, à l’infini.

Cendrillon dans un bac à sable. Grögler a transformé le plateau de l’opéra de Lausanne en forêt enchantée peuplée de poupées, de chevaux de bois et d’ours en peluche. Dans ce décor démultiplié par un jeu de miroirs astucieux, le loup court après le petit Chaperon Rouge, les nains de Blanche-Neige jouent à cache-cache avec un Pierrot lunaire. Angelina a troqué son costume de souillon pour une robe de petite fille qui, le soir dans sa chambre, rêve au prince charmant à travers ses livres de conte

Mais Stephan Grögler est trop malin pour s’arrêter à l’anecdote. Angelina nous renvoie l’image d’une jeune fille abandonnée qui se réfugie dans un imaginaire nouri par les paparazzi et la télévision. Elle, qui se verrait bien sous les traits de Lady Di ou de Sissi, fantasme son destin, un peu comme si elle écrivait elle-même ses propres malheurs pour mieux les combattre et donner ainsi un sens à une vie monotone.

Atmosphère magique de conte de fées. Une production superbement réussie. Grögler prend une certaine distance avec les intentions originale du livret, il a voulu réintégrer et faire éclore sur scène tous les éléments magiques des contes de fées, et tout particulièrement ceux des contes de Perrault. Tout est réalisé avec beaucoup d’élégance et de discrétion, sans renverser ou déformer l’action de l’opéra... Le résultat final était extraordinaire porté au triomphe par le public.

« Je voulais que l’on regarde cette œuvre sans lunettes romantico-idéalistes « Voici donc notre Cenerentola, jeune fille dévoreuse de livres, en companie des sept nains de Blanche-neige, de Merlin l’enchanteur et du Petit Chaperon rouge. De ces livres naît l’histoire : le pêre de la jeune fille s’est transformé en homme méchant et, sa chambre en fôret magique d’ou surgissent des personnages de l’univers féérique jusqu’à ce que le prince frappe à la porte.

Nous sommes bien dans le conte de fée. « Il ne s’agit pas de faire différent pour faire différent, moderne pour faire moderne. L’important, c’est d’avoir une couleur, un parfum qui aille avec l’ésprit de l’œuvre, d’être honnête par rapport à la partition.

Dès lors , grisé par la beauté d’un décor changeant, emporté par la verve comique du récit, on se laisse porter par l’orchestre et les voix, comme en une carosse pour un grand soir de bal. Si d’aventure vous n’êtes jamais allé à l’opéra, visiter donc cette Cendrillon-là. C’est une manière d’Alice qui vous ouvrira les portes d’un monde merveilleux

Stephan Grögler assure la mise en scène. Son travail, il le fait à rebours de celui de Fereti réintroduisant le fantastique et le féerique dans cette histoire. L’amour est souvent affaire de rêve. Rêver à un monde transfiguré par celui ou celle que l’on attend. Finir par faire naître la réalité du rêve et mélanger le fantasque et le réelle dans un tourbillon.

Angelina devient la Dorothé du « Magicien d’Oz », une « Alice» qui fait prendre corps à ses sentiments et les faire sortir du mirroir. Elle appellera à la rescousse le petit Chaperon rouge, le Chat botté. On approche avec subtilité du travail de E. Jung sûr la psychanalyse des contes de fées. Chacun et chacune cherche son loup.

Avec le metteur en scène Stephan Grögler le merveilleux est de retour. Nous sommes dans une fôret magique, le petit chaperon rouge, le loup, les sept neins, la sorcière, tout un bestiaire fait de joujoux, et une porte omniprésente, font de cette Cendrillon une Alice, livre de conte en main, qui passe à travers le mirroir de l’amour. Car le sujet principal est bien là : Comment les petites filles grandissent ? Cela est fait avec beaucoup de finesse et de rythme.

Ca virvolte et tournicote en permanence. Il se passe des choses dans tous les coins et rien est gratuit. Les costumes rutilent, couleurs affirmées. Magnifique travail que l’on doit à Véronique Seymat. Les lumières de Laurent Castaingt soulignent le tout avec science et adresse. On ne cherche pas ici une métaphysique quelconque. Le plaisir de l’auditeur est l’objectif et jamais la musique n’est mal traitée. Ce spectacle est simplement beau, intelligent et pétillant.

L’Opéra de Nantes a mis tout le paquet, dans une réalisation «foldingue» au milieu de cigognes, de chameaux, de poupées. Autant de décors de brocante, de folie décalée dus au metteur en scène Stephan Grögler. Il fallait bien quelqu’un de son envergure pour développer un tel anachronisme intelligent. Pour une fois, on voit sans être choqué, se mêler des courtisans à perruques poudrées style Louis XV et des photographes de presse, style Hollywood 1950

Le rideau s’ouvre sur une image onirique, très poétique : nous sommes à la fois dans la chambre d’Angelina, celle d’une jeune fille à peine sortie de l’enfance, poupées et peluches, et dans une fôret enchantée, peuplée de cigognes, de créatures enchantées et de personnages de contes de fées. Angelina est plongé dans un livre, vautrée sur son lit en companie de ses deux sœurs qui ne sont pas les méchantes tortionnaires du conte, pas plus que cette Cendrillon n’est une servante :

Ce sont trois amies tendrement unies qui s’amusent et se racontent des histoires, des contes de fées qu’elles adorent. Mais très vite, dès l’arrivée du prince, les sœurs ne peuvent plus être que méchantes et ridicules, tout comme l’effroyable beau-pêre.

De splendides images : le palais du prince se trouve également dans la fôret enchantée, agrémenté cette fois-ci non plus d’un lit et de jouets, mais de lustres et d’une astucieuse porte pivotante qui délimite les salles du palais, la scène de l’orage est figurée par une chevauchée de sorcières ; et également un rattachement à l’univers des contes de fées : on croise dans cette fôret le petit chaperon rouge et le loup, les sept nains, boucle d’or, les trois petit cochons…

Demeure une mise en scène rossinienne en diablé, enlevée, animée, hilarante : les protagonistes tombent souvent les quatre fers en l’air, prennent des portes dans la figure, perdent leur perruque… et le public s’amuse, comme un enfant à qui on raconte un conte de fée ! Les moments de tendresse sont néanmoins respectés. Saluons également l’intelligence d’une mise en scène qui bouge beaucoup, mais qui sait aussi s’arrêter quand il le faut.

Cendrillon retrouve des couleurs. Stephan Grögler s’est attaché à redonner à la musique forte et inventive du compositeur italien les couleurs que l’on retrouve pas dans le livret. Les couleurs dont la poésie, la fantaisie, l’humour mais aussi les émotions et la sincérité afin que renaisse l’esprit du conte. Pour autant, Stephan Grögler ne fait pas office d’un monsieur propre de l’opéra, détenteur d’une vérité définitive.

Bien au contraire, il se permet des entorses, des pieds de nez même, au livret comme au conte. Poin de discorde initiale entre Cendrillon et ses deux sœurs : « Pour moi, ce sont trois ados enfermées dans une chambrede jeune fille par la volonté d’un père qui veut leur éviter toute mauvaise rencontre.

Une famille recomposée au sein de laquelle règne donc une vraie complicité. Mais comme toutes les jeunes filles de son âge, Cendrillon rêve d’un prince charmant. Sur ce canevas décalé, le metteur en scène brode une histoire foisonnante, un « feux d’artifice » choral, musical et théâtrale qui repose sur une distribution à la hauteur.

Vivats pour la Mamma The production takes us behind the scenes in a surprising light. A day that will decomplex for a long time the neophytes who would feel somewhat crushed by the weight of the golden paneling of lyrical art. . . . Nothing here is quiet, luxurious and voluptuous. Everything is crazy, shoddy and catastrophic. This outraged desacralization, coupled with a delirious mise en abyme, fortunately does not prevent the magnificence of the interpretations and orchestration.

Opera and comedy. And what a comedy! Decorative chords. For a buffoonery to have a certain depth, the decoration must not lack depth either. With Viva La Mamma we are served, and largely: For the first act, the rehearsal of Romolo and Ersilia" the stage is transformed into a warehouse for new products (lack of theater, renovation) with all that this implies: wobbly crates, scrap metal wardrobes, plastic curtains, immaculate tiles and cold meat quarters.

This atmosphere, a little pale, is followed in Act Two by the heady warmth of the renovated theater. The decoration all in soft kitsch, soft upholstery columns and twisted stairs evokes peplum. . . but in its Michou-kitsch-version! Add to that outrageous costumes and you will have understood that this opera seria will have a hard time keeping its seriousness.

Logically, the two hours of this opera buffa are hilarious. Especially since the spoken texts does not lack fun either: the surtitles comment on the unfolding of the piece, translate what it likes (and not what it is sung) and often slip into anything jubilant!

Viva la Mamma! . . . . all this is very well done. A pastiche that is well worth the foie gras of the end of the year. Viva la Mamma!

Stephan Grögler wanted to force the note and make this creation even more unbridled. A Mamma more truculent and burlesque than ever. . . when the Mamma takes over Casta Diva we laugh with an open throat, we love the singers' pirouettes and vocalizes, we let ourselves be carried away. In the end a triumphe. Stephan Grögler has succeeded in his bet. Finally, we had a comic-belcantist firework display unless it was a lyric therapy from which the public greatly benefited.

Viva la Mamma! from uproar to opera. A crazy show warmly prolongs the end of year with an updated opera buffa . . The renewed favor for the offbeat kitsch suits Viva la Mamma well. . . . Between Mel Brooks and the Marx Brothers.

A stroke of genius in Vienna's fourth opera house. One of the most successful creations of recent years.

Stephan Grögler has revived the morbid atmosphere, very much marked by the bigotry of the play The Black Spider.

A great show The audience is plunged into darkness for a long time, then small, almost unreal lights gently light up behind a black tulle. A hill of bulbs then appears like a starry sky, on which Niobe sits in a suit all in light. The protagonist moves with economy but her journey on stage is decisive and contiguous to the musical drama, and is accompanied by changes in the atmosphere of light, as well as by the movements of luminous objects.

Two times seven bundles - poles evoke the fourteen brothers and sisters. They emerge from the ground or descend from the sky. They're going to be murdered, extinguished. In an abstract but fascinating way, the scenic installation clarifies the subtext of this work's great expressiveness. A staging with images of a confounding force. These two dramas are creepy.

It all starts in total darkness. The voices open the show, instruments of the rite. Twelve small lamps, just as there are twelve voices in the choir, light up and gradually rise and disappear. From the beginning, we are well in an act of religion, and we believe, without any other representation, in the offering to Léto. Then Niobe appeared, in a kind of luminous dress topped with a proud headdress.

Her face remains in the shadows, the character then being defined only by her outlines and her superb appearance. On stage, a multitude of bulbs are lit, like sacrificial gifts of light to Léto. Niobe has taken his place in the middle of this field of offerings of the women of Thebes, and holds his arrogant speech. Light tubes rise from the ground or descend from the heavens, like bars in the prison of sufficiency in which Niobe locks herself in; they are fourteen, like her children.

As soon as Léto begins to take revenge, the lighting changes, becoming more and more whitish, and five columns lean, suspended in their fall. The blisters weaken, then go out. They become, illuminated by a cold metal light, they become drops of water that dull to form the rock of Sipyle, the rock of pain so many mineral tears.

Niobe's dress died out, and the one who wore it, in her tragedy, found a face, a skin color, a humanity that her destiny didnt offer her. A high quality show, and it is hoped that it will be performed on other stages in the future.

a breathtaking scenery. The contrasting stage spaces create magic. The vain queen questions herself, freezes in her extraordinary fluorescent costume and slowly becomes a part of the vertical ballet of colored stalagmites and stalactites.

In the strong images of the staging, Stephan Grögler brilliantly solves the problem of scenic works that lack the usual components of opera. Starting from the complete black, Queen Niobe gradually reveals herself to us in all her brilliance against a backdrop of constellations, in the midst of strange luminous columns in rainbow colors. Images of her children, one by one, will probably collapse and leave her collapsed in a burnt-out world.

A Diptyque refined and movingly brought on stage by Stephan Grögler. This staging, with costumes inspired by the world of heroic fantasies, gives Niobe a hierarchical position in osmosis with the aestheticism of Bob Wilson and captivates with the set that shows a field of stars and luminous columns.

Stephan Grögler took up the challenge with this new production, yet the challenge was not easy, but he once again managed to surprise the audience by creating a anticipatory setting where the crystalline voice of the perfect Christine Buffle had the opportunity to impose itself with all its strength in the vocal emission.

While everything invites us to seek continuity between these harsh and sharp works, director Stephan Grögler underlines their differences. In Niobe, whose hieraticism and use of Latin reminds us of the Oedipus Rex, the incandescent Christine Buffle embodies an electrifying character in a neon forest and under a starry sky formed by clusters of light bulbs

A scene all black, timeless and of rare power lets the character of Niobe emerge as a sculpture. The character's painful journey appears as a via cruxis in a timeless space. There was a certain decline in the dramatic development of the character of Niobe: from the heartbreaking cry of a mother who lost her children, she gradually disembodied to become nothing more than a kind of doll

Intense acting. Grögler lets the drama unfold on an empty stage. He only places a few accessories and a red velvet curtain that evokes the places of the action. All the dramatic action is devolved to the protagonists alone. The tensions between the characters are ever more intense, ever more desperate, until the final scene of Lucretia's suicide wich is resolved in a masterly manner

The Rape of Lucretia an exemplary production: François Xavier Hauville once again calls on Stephan Grögler who had made the Turn of the Screw an exemplary success. The new production of the Théâtre de Caen is a milestone. Indeed, few opera productions of such quality are found in all French opera houses.

. . . Stephan Grögler transcends the bias of staging, the theater in the theater, to offer us a space of a marvelous poetic unity that takes on its full meaning in scene 2 when the female universe appears. Grögler created a staging that will be a milestone in his career. This production with its ingenious stage set-up and exemplary coherence in its design is currently not programmed anywhere else. However, it must be taken up again. . . .

... la lecture de Stephan Grögler de l’ouvrage est d’une telle finesse que l’on y croit aussitôt.... Tous les éléments du décor évoluent au fil du drame pour devenir les supports métaphoriques d’une mise en scène de l’honneur et du destin contrarié. Grögler épure gestes et déplacements...un bon spectacle, très homogène et convaincant sur le plan visuel

Une production splendide

. . . Stephan Grögler's staging is completely in line with Britten's storytelling spirit. From this intelligent conception, everything could then work. We could wait impatiently, scene after scene, for the continuation of this dramatic story. . . . The Rape of Lucretia finally showed, and with what pleasure, that there is no successful show without conviction and overcoming

Cruelty, ambiguity, paradoxical kindness: none of the different aspects of the Rape of Lucretia is forgotten by Stephan Grögler's staging. . . in the acting that disrupts an economy of means that is rare in opera. By the general relevance of the score and his intellectual authority that emerges from it, Stephan Grögler compensates for the few aesthetic temptations.

In Lausanne, the Viol de Lucrèce offers itself disturbing beauties From nightmare to fantasy, from horror to beauty, the borders are soft but solid. The minimalist decor designed by Stephan Grögler gives the opportunity to remind that with three times nothing you can say a lot. . . This new achievement is to be marked with a white stone.

In the course of the last season of the Lausanne Opera, one was really petrified by the beauty of Haydn's Orfeo direction, by the depth of thought of the images and by so much ingenuity. This year Grögler returns to the theatre in Lausanne with The Rape of Lucretia

The work, directed by Stephan Grögler, demonstrates that art and beauty can lead to ethical reflection.The Rape of Lucretia has nothing to do with these pseudo-historical productions whose dramatic dimension leaves the inhabitants of the 20th century indifferent. Stephan Grögler's staging stylizes the traumatic event of the rape with modesty and beauty.

Stephan Grögler's staging triumphs in Lausanne, and Grögler's design allows Britten's extremely elaborate music to flourish in a faithful reading of the score. The sumptuous decorations further reinforce this impression. . . Thus, the intensity of the singers acting is sure to enthuse the audience.

Staged with remarkable theatrical relevance, Britten's opera caused a sensation on the stage of the Lausanne opera. The Rape of Lucretia is confirming the talent of the young Bernese Stephan Grögler. The Lausanne production makes this work a jewel of ambiguous darkness and desperate tenderness. Le Temps

. . . Here on a bare stage that reveals its entrails, everything is conceived on the double game of action and commentary, of the space of representation and the thing represented, with, as a border, a huge curtain that winds on the stage, walking to the rhythm of the action that is committed there. Le Temps

If Stephan Grögler had not let a little aesthetic affectation float in this pirandellian production, we would taste quite what is splendid there of technical precision and purely theatrical inventiveness. . . . No gesture expected, but movements that we never see in opera, restraint, an incredibly fair economy of means, and which make us think that with Grögler, a real director was born.

Remarkable, this treatment also has the advantage of particularly enhancing the singers. Thus, on this fascinating setting, Stephan Grögler displays all the clarity of the score. All the ambiguity and paradoxes that Britten hides behind a creeping guilt too. A disturbing but in every way exemplary production!

An ingenious blood-red curtain descending from the fly tower and running on an S-shaped rail placed diagonally across the stage, makes it possible to move from one scene to another without any interruption: the piece gains in readability, density and dramatism, since everything here remains collected in an tiny space, just like the number of characters. . . A magnificently assumed show

The Opéra de Rennes gives a pure and icy Viol de Lucrèce. A thrifty elegance as setting: on a simple rehearsal stage (chairs, an old grand piano, a few lamps), a velvet curtain, madder, subtly snakes along a rod with rounded curves conducive to the evocation of alcoves. This set is a mental space that is all the more freely suggestive because it is abstract.

There are images of stunning beauty, such as that of the female trio, in Act 1, bathed in a soft and warmly dimmed light, during which Lucretia, her nurse Bianca and her servant Lucia unfold white linen. It is not known whether it is the ineffable poetry of Britten's music or the evocative force of the director that gives the certainty that the delicious smell of a freshly washed linen sheet invades the theater. . .

While the composer expressly asks that the roles of the female and male choirs "like in ancient times frame the tragedy but do not take part in it" Grögler convinces the contrary by asking the soprano and tenor to enter into the drama. They sneak in like translucent and helpless ghosts, giving the disturbing impression of being the positive side of the two demonic spectra of the Turn of the Screw.

Lausanne's production is exemplary. Stephan Grögler, to whom we already owe an excellent Turn of the Screw, has also done a very good directing job here. With intelligence, he plays out all the ambiguities of the work, underlining the symbols without appearing too didactic.

On stage, a green neon tower-totem on the left side crosses a diagonal of red neon lights that ingeniously thwarts the eye in its instinctive concern to delimit playspaces. At the right, the Steinway closes the horizon, in front of which one can guess the future meeting of a quartet or quintet. Still the simplicity of this luminous geometry is to be nuanced, many bulbs of different sizes soften the setting design

. . . tears of laughter and emotion. A delicious evening! At first the moving and sensitive part was just as engaging as the second part, which was treated with a lighter and more entertaining way.

White tiles, a mixture of slaughterhouses or kitchens, for Medea, this kind of scenic space already encountered, but which does not prevent Grögler from using it in an efficient way. The murder of Medea's sons is not really at stake but instead Medea peels potatoes with a frightening maniacism until her hands drip with blood. The wedding dress catches fire on the stove.

Medea is a woman of today, an extreme example of a dramatic situation transposed into real life. The myth is confused with life. Thus, in this staging, the changes in lighting play a major role in translating the character's emotion. And Grögler succeeds in getting Caroline Stein to express herself through a strong and understanding existential body language. She is simply extraordinary, both vocally and stage wise. These two dramas are creepy.

Stephan Grögler, who has distinguished himself in recent years by careful staging, always based on a scrupulous analysis of the works treated, and the themes they evoke, signed here a surprising, sensitive, and directly shocking work.

Medea at the bottom of a kind of disused swimming pool, surrounded by tiles attacked by time, mold and rust of the ladders. She seems to live there, with a dilapidated stove, next to a pile of unspeakable filth. Here, Medea is alone on this desolate scene, bitterly soliloquy, expressing her bitterness as much as her desires, which Jason no longer fulfills, without artifice, all based on a direction of actors of terrible exigency and accuracy.

Caroline Stein is extremely present, plays with the difficulties of a lyrical writing that sometimes borders on screaming, which uses high-pitched words to express the character's lacks, regrets, hatred and fury, using it quite naturally to be that Medea. We rarely find such a commitment in the game on the part of the singers. This is a real comedian's job, without restraint, crying out for truth.

. . . an impressive triumph. The former East Germany or Tarkovsky setting is stripped down. It evokes a dilapidated swimming pool with rubbish on the side, a gas stove in the center, lights that are alternately pale, raw, pale blue and dirty yellow. It is in this sordid place that Medea gives herself to see on a daily basis, peeling potatoes, hurting her hands with bright red blood that smears her legs and clothes. Interpretation made flesh: Caroline Stein will leave a moving memory.

Medea's monologue, in a contemporary, even daily setting, faces a mineral closed space covered with a bloody sheet. How can we not associate this confinement, which generates panic, with certain climates close to the tragedies of our time? Caroline Stein, Medea whose variety of vocalization modes is coupled with an immense talent as an actress with screaming suffering

Surrounded by a minimalist and stylized decor that is in total harmony with Heiner Müller's genre, we were able to witness an extraordinary stage performance by the very talented Caroline Stein.

Dans un décor de fin de monde, Médée est une sorte de réunion de sorcières postnucléaires où Caroline Stein confère au rôle titre une dimension expressionniste.

Pour Médée Grögler a trouvé un espace scénique surprenant : Médeé végète dans une « zone » carrelé de blanc et délabrée, évoquant peut-être un abattoir. Les portes sont murées. Des échelles rouillées donnent une idée d’échappatoire vers le haut, mais une bâche imposante rend impossible toute fuite. Ici Médée est hantée par ses propres démons intérieurs. Sa propre ombre sur le mur devient tour à tour Jason ou bien sa nounou, à Jason invisible elle propose gentiment une chaise.

Elle est comme possédée , jusqu’au moment culminant de la pièce où l’assassinat de ses propres enfants qu’elle a elle-même perpétré est évoqué ici lors d’un cérémonial sordide : Médée épluche des patates en se coupant dans sa chair sans sembler réaliser qu’elle est souillée par le sang.....Caroline Stein.. une protagoniste exceptionnelle.

Very nice realization. It is a subtle play of mirrors that favors confrontations in the scenic space, remarkably used and allows keeping at work this quasi cinematographic division that gives that particular rhythm, obsessive and breathless, that Britten's score maintains by playing with the very contrasting colors of a dazzling sound palette. Grögler directs the singers with a rigorous flexibility that prevents any melodramatic effect.

… It is a success that can be measured by the work done with children who keep a wonderful naturalness. A great moment of poetry. This Turn of the Screw is a milestone in the field of lyrical creation. . . . Grögler, undoubtedly one of the most gifted directors of his generation.

A brilliant Turn of the Screw. Britten succeeds at the Caen theater: we remember the success of Robert Carsen's A Midsummer Night's Dream last year. Stephan Grögler's Turn of the Screw was produced with the same talent. Two hours of pure pleasure. . . a great moment of the season.

An original staging. A delight that only has the disadvantage of flowing too quickly

A staging in an artistic stage design: deep emotions are aroused.

The highlight of the Comic Opera season

A total success.

Stephan Grögler has resolutely moved away from a realistic show to accentuate the phantasmagoria of the action present in every detail of the scenography (movement, objects, costumes, colors, lighting. . . ) to join Britten's music in its background, which she explains by wrapping it in a surreal but deeply human universe. It is a great moment of opera applauded by an audience won over by so much truth.

beautiful and intelligent, an enthusiastic welcome. The Lyon Opera was fortunately inspired to entrust Stephan Grögler with this Turn of the Screw . . The decoration plays the role of revealing. . . Each move is both ferociously calculated and harmoniously mysterious. This would not have been possible without the exceptional sense of precision and strangeness that clearly captured a team passionate about adventure. One of the most beautiful moments of Lyon's opera of the 1990s!

The atmosphere is very quickly thick as black water, carrying with it turbulent and dual emotions. The overwhelming pressure of the drama knotting on stage. . . . . a staging, expressive and largely universal. The aesthetics of the piece is in its dramatic construction and its perfect adequacy with the music. Add to that the decor, light and dark lights that a Flemish painter would not deny. A beautiful picture of truth.

Here are the Marriage of Figaro under the microscope by director Stephan Grögler. For a work whose perfect theatrical logic a priori disqualifies any attempt at rewriting, he had the intelligence to follow the rhythm imposed by Mozart and Da Ponte, while still offering original and relevant insights into its internal mechanics.

The decorations are refined. Accessories solicited in turn in an original ballet by a spiritual and inspired theater man, cultivating the wink and the funny detail. Above all, each stage element provides different spaces in which the singers surprise, spy, make mistakes and reconcile. The cross-sectional view of the Countess' Kabinet in which Cherubin takes refuge allows the spectator to be a voyeur in turn. ResMusica.com : (Vincent Deloge)

Like a watchmaker exposing the mechanism of a clock, Grögler invites you, with scrupulous precision and a certain efficiency, to penetrate all the cogs and gears of this crazy day, where the smile and the threat, the irony and the anger never cease to overlap.

A very precise and thorough actor's direction, which does not forget any character Bartolo's ridiculous words or Basilio's drunkenness make us laugh, as much as we worry about Figaro's or the Count's brusqueness. The stage is permanently inhabited, without ever falling into vain agitation. Under these conditions, even Basilio's usually impossible aria in the fourth act "In quegli anni" finds unsuspected theatrical virtues.

Stephan Grögler concentrates his acting direction in a setting that reflects the 1890s. So it is a good idea that this pictorial climate heralds the Belle Epoque, where the shadow of Toulouse-Lautrec passes through. The second quality of the staging: the fast rhythm of the show. Grögler perfectly exploits this spirit of speed in series of multicolored and dazzling pictures.

A grandiose evening!. . . . sober and intelligent sets. . . here is the setting for an exemplary performance. The director managed to make these characters into flesh beings. Thanks to this, the complexity of their souls, the difficulties of youth and love, the horror of death appear in the opera. . . The audience filled the theatre and gave a long-standing ovation to the entire troupe. Such quality can only lead to success

Original staging. A strong musical staging, nothing stands in the way of Puccini's musical language. Stephan Grögler leads the soloists with great sensitivity, in a discreet way but with a great deal of original and funny detail. He motivates them to a natural, nuanced acting and logical portraits.

A show to see and hear. Stephan Grögler takes care of the details. A show that goes straight to the heart. The audience greets this production with long and enthusiastic applause.

Only happiness Stephan Grögler, a professional bewitched by the place; . . . opera staged by the darling of the current operatic world, Stephan Grögler. An event! The sumptuous sets and costumes do not neglect any character, little angels, devils or sheep. Stephan Grögler's staging imaginatively uses the different poles of the place, choir, gallery, aisles. He made the disused church of Le Noirmont a magical place.

Dazzling, grandiose, magical, superlatives are not lacking to describe the evening of this first performance. The set, costumes and staging, so particular where choirs and soloists come and go among the audience, give this oratorio a touch of originality and freshness. It is up to you, the future spectator, to rush to the old church to let yourself be dazzled by this wonderful show. Great art offered to the public in the Jura. A bold creation.

. . subtle and poetic movement, offbeat but never ironic by choreographer Daniel Larrieu. Director Stephan Grögler has created a show with an insolent and invigorating freedom, mixing epochs, costumes and theatre styles. He located it in a setting that is half Zen garden, half desert ruin, a space conducive to all kinds of metamorphosis, on which he perched a promontory and strewn it with television screens and video projections.

But, instead of going astray in one of these common places of high-tech staging, he does a work of ineffable poetry, refined, tender, in love and respectful of this music, which he bathes in purple, blue and green lights, and which plunge the spectator into a wonderful enchantment of artistic truth.

We hadn't had such a strong and moving moment at the opera in a long time. Congratulations to the Lausanne opera house, the main producer, and the Nîmes theater, which will revive the show in a few days'; time; shame on the French and Parisian theaters who have decided not to co-produce this marvel and do not have the courage to dare to imagine another Triumph of Atys

Stephan Grögler's staging is exclusively at the service of this baroque veneration. Lully's opera is like a tale, timeless, with its rituals, its exoticism, its false presences. A dreamy baroque that dies with the spotlight

.. . . real acting skills, perfectly channeled by Stephan Grögler's judicious and attentive management, where nothing is left to chance. The choir is treated as constructed individualities. This setting is very versatile and offers an aesthetic and ingenious alternative to the fantastic story. All this is brilliant and has a sure taste, skillfully associated with Laurent Castaingt's ever more elaborate lighting.

Stephan Grögler abstained from the baroque visual flooding; to transfer the action into a timeless No man's land. A unique place, a desert and gray waterfront that is oppressive and sad. In contrast to colorful video projections filling a dozen television screens with images of nature and baroque ornamentation.

A colorful and lively production by Stephan Grögler. . . war against love. It requires a certain ironic restraint. And Grögler does this brilliantly: he makes fairies, shepherds and shepherds, court people, ballet twirl by putting Lully's entertainment back into the somewhat tired and annoyed hightsociety. There is a permanent exchange between the winged sailors, the shepherds and the Mandarins with their charming play of parasols that populate this desert landscape.

All dies erweckt diesen Raum nicht nur zum Leben, sondern verleiht ihm auch viel Charme und Humor. Dank 12 Fernsehbildschirmen mit ihren bunten Bildern oder künstlicheren Grafiken gedeihen diese Wüstenorte wieder, wir befinden uns immer mit zwei kontrastierenden Bildebenen. Und wenn Roland in der Szene des Liebeswahnsinns einen Fernseher zertrümmert, ist der Effekt nicht nur spektakulär, sondern hat auch einen dramaturgischen Sinn.

. . . real acting skills, perfectly channeled by Stephan Grögler's judicious and attentive management, where nothing is left to chance. The choir is treated as constructed individualities. This setting is very versatile and offers an aesthetic and ingenious alternative to the fantastic story. All this is brilliant and has a sure taste, skillfully associated with Laurent Castaingt's ever more elaborate lighting.

Endless applause and Roland's victory! Lully's unknown opera triumphs in a superb production.

This production of the Opéra de Lausanne is a great success. In terms of staging, choreography, sets, costumes and video, we reach the pinnacle of efficiency. Stephan Grögler, Daniel Larrieu, Véronique Seymat and Charles Carcopino have all combined (and the word is weak!) their talents to best serve this production.

The result is a true modernist and luminous enchantment, in which the artists are so many shimmering facets that capture the changing colors of this immense kaleidoscope. The lighting, the projections on the suspended panels are visually magical and the structure of the set (a kind of bridge stretched towards the horizon), allows the light to invent infinite perspectives that transport this opera towards the unreal. A furiously handsome Roland.

Johnny Johnson french premiere: a success!. . . . . Successful staging and public triumph for the entire production team gathered around Stephan Grögler who did a tremendous job. A success!

Johnny Johnson a success. . . Stephan Grögler's choice to develop this show under a tent responds as well to the universe of a theater for armies as to the idea of a refugee camp. All the director's work is thus supported by images and effects of striking symbolic force. The stage, a circular inclined plane, is transformed into a city square, an office, a battlefield, a hospital, at the same time the ten actors-singers change characters.

. . The obstacle of an original version in English is erased by the scenic quality of the transformation scenes and by the interventions in French subtly inserted by the playwright Louis Charles Sirjacq. And then, and above all, the perfectly designed distribution completes the success of this show.

. . . A show full of qualities. . . Stephan Grögler's direction is intelligent, lively and eventful, and his sets present many happy ideas. . .

. . The show highlights the effective and colorful staging. . . . Grögler is not lost in realism. He skillfully plays with lights, creates magical moments of melancholy and dream, masterfully unfolds a trench scene and uses the best humor. This production has delighted a packed tent and fully serves the musical theater of the twentieth century.

. . The show highlights the effective and colorful staging. . . . Grögler is not lost in realism. He skillfully plays with lights, creates magical moments of melancholy and dream, masterfully unfolds a trench scene and uses the best humor. This production has delighted a packed tent and fully serves the musical theater of the twentieth century.

Grögler inventively evaluates the unusual location of a tent. The performance : a success.

This new production has breathed fresh air into all aspects of the production: a voluntary modernist production, although always sober, which is the prerogative of the young Stephan Grögler…the comparison of the two conclusions proves to be a wise choice.

The first impression of beeing caught up in contradiction by transposing, according to the academism of modernity, everything to the present time was quickly erased under the success of Stephan Grögler's proposal, who also signed the magnificent sets and costumes with Véronique Seymat. In the 1930s, an austere concave bronze wall evokes the famous walls of Syracuse, in an Art Deco coldness and a Mussolinian stiffness.

Le seul byzantinisme ici, est celui de la mise en scène, qui étonne d’abord en transposant, selon l’académisme de la modernité de tout transposer au temps présent. Mais cette première impression s’efface vite sous la réussite de la proposition de Stephan Grögler qui signe aussi les magnifiques décors et costumes avec Véronique Seymat. Années 30 donc, un austère concave mur de bronze évoque les murailles célèbres de Syracuse, dans une froideur Art Déco et une raideur mussolinienne.

An opressing palace-bunker ; showing a fascist dictatorships, witch fascinated the nearby Balkans and the former Turkish Empire of Mustapha Kemal, where dark and rigid military forces evolve, filled with a somewhat mafia-like arrogance. Against a black stage curtain background, beautiful theatrical signs: a white bouquet, three chairs, a candelabra.

The soloists and chorus are acting with precise attitudes like in black and white movie, magnificent. The reverse side of the 2 act setting impresses with its rigorous beauty and light (Laurent Castaingt) in the style of futuristic and abstract painters with its immense vertical and oblique lines luminescently underlined, we think of Fritz Lang, especially Murnau, and the center door evokes Hopper.

Stephan Grögler has done a remarkable job, both stimulating for the spectator and training for the young singers from whom he demands agility and resistance. He designed a unic setting, a kind of small mountain of micro acting-spaces that communicate together by steps. Thus, with a minimum of curtain falls, the scenes follow one another without interruption and let the profusion of the libretto invade the action.

In Lausanne, the audience reserves a standing ovation for L'Anima del filosofo. . . Orpheus expiring must have had a memorable standing ovation. Excited by a two-hour flood of colors, the public enthusiastically welcomed the new Lausanne production. On January 2, the same room shook to the applause of another audience, also inflamed. A bug-free journey for Stephan Grögler, who is responsible for the staging. . . . This winter's lyrical show. . . .

During the last season of the Opéra de Lausanne, we were literally amazed by the beauty of Haydn's L'anima del filosofo staging of, by the depth of his vision, by so much imagination. Stephan Grögler will come back this season for Britten's Rape of Lucretia

Orfeo and Euridice good surprise, the well-known Stephan Grögler, has created an intelligent and clever production in Lausanne. . . Stephan Grögler thwarted the difficulties by putting together a representation of Orfeo. The process works and perfectly illustrates the fluidity of the sequences and the many changes of location.

Orfeo and Euridice makes a triumph at the theatre of Caen. Grögler Haydn's great magician. . . announced as the lyrical event at the beginning of the year, the show kept its promises and enthused the audience of the Caen Theatre. . . we will remember a particularly bright staging. . . From a booklet not without weaknesses the director drew an astonishing show.

Orfeo an exemplary production. . . the director also responsible for the painted canvases inspired by Rothko, succeeds in making readable a complicated plot, to say the least, replacing the action in an imaginary court. . .

…Stephan Grögler was able to take advantage of the dramaturgical weaknesses of this work by reinforcing Orfeo's inner drama. His Orfeo, like Tamino, must go through trials before finding the reason. The choirs with Mozart accents are in turn treated in the same way as in Greek tragedy, they comment on the action and create a theatrical distance, or they become characters involved in this action.

The decoration is superb, inspired by Rothko's canvases, with significant colors, and large tulle panels, the border between the visible and the invisible. A very beautiful inner drama

... Stephan Grögler signe un fabuleux spectacle, d’une pertinence, d’une splendeur et d’une intelligence comme on en n’a plus vu de longtemps dans un tel répertoire... il ne cesse ainsi de combler, par son propre théâtre ce que le livret ne donne pas. Il montre des personnages aux prises avec l’essentiel, face à leur drame, mais aussi dans le réseaux des codes et des conventions qui façonnent l’esthétique de l’ouvrage et de son temps...

. . . Stephan Grögler has created a fabulous show, of such relevance, splendor and intelligence as we have not seen for a long time in such a repertoire. . . He never stops filling, with his own theater, what the libretto does not give. It shows characters struggling with the essential, in the face of their drama, but also in the network of codes and conventions that shape the aesthetics of the work and its time. .

. . . Whether it is a question of distance or proximity to the plot, the illustration of the subject or its commentary, the general rhythm and the care taken in the conduct of each character (including the chorus), this show, as we have understood it, is a pure delight.

Stephan Grögler, remember this name… for both operas he finds clever dramaturgical and scenographic solutions. . . In The Emperor he dramatizes, he clutters up, just like Ullmann, who stuffs his score with references, in Socrates, he purifies. . . . we regret that A. Stoehr does not show the same tact as the director.

. . . Grögler's work, stretched to the extreme, shows a real knowledge of dramatic acting. Les Echos

The work of director Stephan Grögler is intelligent and sensitive. He kept the same concept for both works: a concave scene in a cube. Dark and expressionist climates for The Emperor of Atlantis which vibrates with poignant, light and luminous beauties like Greece for Socrates

The young director and his costume designer Véronique Sejmat are to be congratulated. It's a duo that we're not finished hearing about because of the list of successes they already have.

The undeniable success of the evening being to the credit of the director Stephan Grögler whose inventiveness (props), elegance (costumes from Socrates), intelligence and clarity (the acting) and humility (serving the scores) are remarkable, this young director (31 years old) is destined for a great future.

. . . breathtaking costumes. . . Stephan Grögler's thesis of madness is very taking; we follow the pitiful fate of the Mad King; with a knotted throat. At no time does the tension release. A sensational production!

Praise the madness. A top-of-the-range interpretation and an original staging, superb lighting. Stephan Grögler has set up a truculent, alert, ironic production, with just the right amount of derision and concern.

Thanks to Stephan Grögler's acting direction, Miss Donnithornes became a character with a passionate and changing character. In Eight Songs tension and anguish are increasingly present and inevitably mark the character of Mad King broken by madness and illness.

Thanks to Stephan Grögler's acting direction, Miss Donnithornes became a character with a passionate and changing character. In Eight Songs tension and anguish are increasingly present and inevitably mark the character of Mad King broken by madness and illness.

How to represent Judith's journey, which opens one by one the gates of Bluebeard Castle as if to reveal the hidden corners of an unfamiliar soul? Grögler replaces the doors with night table drawers, an eminently intimate space. The huge disused hall that serves as a palace amplifies each secret discovered by subtle changes in lighting. This hall, the two spouses accessed it by an old lift; superb image of the elevator whose descent breaks through the darkness.

A very personal and symbolic staging of both works by Stephan Grögler. Grögler interprets the work accurately. The characters; internal struggles and sufferings are credible. . . . The extreme reduction of the introspection of the two main characters of Blaubart; is in strong contrast to his interpretation of the Zwerg

Stephan Grögler treats these two pieces in one act in two very different ways; and he is not wrong, because Bartok's condensed musical language seems to us to be in sharp contrast to Zemlinsky's permanent musical flow in which the fiery melodies"sweat with expressiveness".

The winning team of the « Turn of the screw » and the « The Rape of Lucretia » is back for an inspired production. . . The clever and colorful staging is a real eye-catcher, a show bursting with vitality. . . Grögler's inventive staging leaves even less respite, as it abandons the stage curtain, integrates the intervention of stagehands into the action and adds poetic and spicy children's roles with humor.

Stephan Grögler's direction plunges the play into an atmosphere filled with bright colors, kitsch and cinematographic winks, an evocation of the world of classical musical theater. In the middle of daily life, the characters move from singing to dialogue as in a Jacques Demy musical. More than the comic of situations, Grögler exploits the sentimental side of the comedy of morals.

. . . Stephan Grögler creates a highly colorful staging of songs and sets. Even if we sometimes think of the Hollywood productions of the time; the director mainly assumes a strong influence of Jacques Demy's films. Grögler works on the stylisation of movements, costumes, sets, choreography, lighting to create a kind of parallel space.

. . . Stephan Grögler, whose undisputed talent we know, has brought out the best in this work.

Intelligent, joyful, colourful production

Gretel and Hänsel (from Stephan Grögler opera director of the future) is worth the trip. It is a show in every respect admirable. . . this initiation to the dangers of adulthood is represented in an intelligent and playful way. . . the tale reaches its universality thanks to an actualisation that is never aggressive, but poetic, dreamlike and funny. Great art!

...une mise en scène très captivante et inventive.

This staging is visually understandable and entertaining for children, the result fills the young audience with pleasure and arouses vocations.

The director, Stephan Grögler, delights us with freshness and originality. Ideas come up, irresistibly funny or nostalgic, but never cheap. Before Disneyland, dazzle yourself and your family at the Bastille Amphitheatre!

Stephan Grögler's staging also tends to update the story and its setting. The wood, while distant and worrying, evokes the jungle of cities and the dangers of today, through a host of enigmatic signs and billboards. In any case, in keeping with an artistic policy that is already old, the Opéra de Lyon has decided to present a show that is clearly understandable to the children to whom it is addressed without damaging the original work.

. . . a remarkable achievement where professionalism and emotion, form an inseparable household. And in front of the sober and fair play of the young actors, their moving voices and their commitment, one can only be convinced and enthusiastic about the result of the remarkable teamwork. This means that all the participants in this exemplary company deserve the same praise, with a special mention for the director Stephan Grögler.

It's a deeply sad story told by hundreds of eight to fourteen years old singers, a story from a distant history and yet in many ways, frighteningly topical. A remarkably agile production. Under the direction of Stephan Grögler, the visibly motivated children sacrificed part of their free time.

They showed in brilliant acting performances the hardships and punishments, but also the solidarity among each other or the attempts to escape, the marked leader figures and informers, happily dismissed, but finally also dying.

The archivist who follows this tremendous story and brings it to life from old sources. The simple and refined stage designdesigned by Grögler for the revolvingstage of the Geneva Opera House, the book racks of an archive that transform into workshops and bedrooms, contributed decisively to the successful production.

"Les Enfants du Levant"; distresses the BFM. Clever and impressive setting. Objective achieved: In the sold out BFM "Les enfants du Levant" the audience was overwhelmed and impressed by the quality of the work of the children and their elders. Stephan Grögler's sets and staging contribute significantly to the success of the evening.

"Les Enfants du Levant"; distresses the BFM. Clever and impressive setting. Objective achieved: In the sold out BFM "Les enfants du Levant" the audience was overwhelmed and impressed by the quality of the work of the children and their elders. Stephan Grögler's sets and staging contribute significantly to the success of the evening.

Stephan Grögler had the brilliant idea of designing his sets around a single element. As the Archivist (excellent Philippe Morand) consults old documents in his library, he reconstructs the facts, imagines the abused children, literally projects their experiences around him, so that the library transforms itself into a penitentiary.

On dusty books (a metaphor for buried memory), children in rags sing their misery in prison. The library, lit by neon lights, pivots on itself. Every quarter turn, a different part of the penitentiary appears: laundry room, shoemaking, tomato plantation. . . Of a rare intelligence. Seeing the commitment of the children on stage, the extraordinary accuracy of their acting, we think that adults could well take an example from them.

The Bernese did not skimp on his ambitions by installing a skilful and imposing setting where the action is knotted with naturalness. The large turntable, which reveals in turn a library, a prison, a shoe factory, a laundry and a no man's land rooted on a mound of books, gives into the symbol while remaining perfectly effective.

Philippe Morand is the Archivist, narrator and witness of the terrible mutiny of the little convicts. He evolves in his lecture-place filled with these tortured lives with the ease of a pro. Proof that the concept works for everyone and is also aimed at the most experienced people on stage. The other adults in the story benefit as much from this treatment as the forty or so young people, all as surprising in their involvement and theatrical intensity.

This very active director in France, imposes from show to show a theatrical intelligence that we are happy to see progress. By theatrical intelligence, we mean this way of uniting the relevance of the design and respect for the contingencies specific to the stage. The same intelligence governs the staging of the « Zwerg » to which the direction of rather naturalistic acting adapts well.

Grögler interprets the work accurately. The characters' inner struggles and sufferings are credible. . . in contrast to his interpretation of « Blaubart » the « Zwerg » overflows with choreographic rococo images; a "scenic abundance". In this atmosphere of decadence, the fate of the"Zwerg" is even more dramatic

Stephan Grögler treats these two pieces in one act in two very different ways; and he is not wrong, because Bartok's condensed musical language seems to us to be in sharp contrast to Zemlinsky's permanent musical flow in which the fiery melodies"sweat with expressiveness".

A trendy Cosi commedia dell'Arte. This redacted version of the dizziness and the shadows of the work appeals enormously to the audience. Ezio Toffolutti designs sets and costumes of great refinement. This time the staging is set by the young Stephan Grögler; the show is revived, the performers move, have fun; Despina and Alfonso leads the dance, and Cosi finds his Neapolitan roots. There is a invigorating wind of commedia del arte blowing on this evening.

. . . Slapped by the guests, Prince Rainier seemed to taste as much as his children the succession of scenes imagined by the creator of « Chanel ». . . . At the princely tables, the atmosphere was in tune with that in the room: unbridled

Successful premiere; with how much enthusiasm and commitment this work is realized enchants just as much as the legendary plot of the fairy tale. The dynamic production relies on group choreographies and a clear body language. With wood shavings and hanging poles this forest is masterly evoked with little resources. The production inspires amazement and reflection and brings the fairy tale into the present without any contortion – a splendid achievement.

Hope at the end of the line in the fairytale forest. The opera"The Cold Heart" is a mammoth project with around a hundred participants. The world premiere at the Reitschule was a success. Director Stephan Grögler fortunately didn't let himself be tempted to locate the current fairy tale in reality. Peter is also a charcoal burner in the Berneproduction and not a stockbroker. The forest remains forest. Grögler trusts in the power of the old legend and in the libretto by Lukas Hartmann.

…And it is precisely for this reason that he finds impressive images. For example, when the children's choir, dressed entirely in white, wanders through the dark forest and tries to warn Peter Munk against his own folly. The long stage, covered with wood chips, is interspersed with dark iron bars, a wooden board is sometimes a gate of fate, sometimes a banquet table. Der Bund (Moritz Ackermann)

An opera means action, colour, song and music. And when it comes well in modern times, it sounds and appears -as it does here - as a whole, as a total work of art. The soloists turn out to be a dramaturgically finely tuned ensemble with differentiated individual characteristics adapted to the caracters. What an impressive overall performance. It is worth a trip to Bern. The symbolic story told with all these artisctic elements and means captivates and seizes.