To celebrate the upcoming revival at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, recording group Outhere just released La Monnaie’s award-winning production of Jakob Lenz on dvd.
In 2015, Wolfgang Rihm’s unsettling opera adaptation of Georg Büchner’s novella Lenz proved an unexpected hit for the Staatsoper Stuttgart and La Monnaie, as more than 50 opera journalists from around the world elected it Production of the Year in the reference magazine Opernwelt. The fact that a chamber opera for three protagonists and barely twelve musicians, written in the late seventies by a composer then 26 years old, found unanimous praise among professional critics, was due to the synergy between three exceptional artists: stage director Andrea Breth and conductor Franck Ollu created from the psychodrama of the romantic poet Jakob Lenz, the spectre of a modernity abandoned by the gods and devoid of meaning. In the lead role, baritone Georg Nigl did not spare himself, voice and body alike, and with the total, almost disturbing commitment of his performance, earned himself the title of Opera Singer of the Year. In September he returns to Brussels for the lead role in Macbeth Underworld.
As part of the worldwide Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the façade of La Monnaie will lit up in pink from 17 to 19 October. Through this symbolic gesture, our house aims to highlight what is still insufficiently known about the disease.
On 21 November, the International Opera Awards will recognise the artists, productions and most innovative projects that marked the international opera scene in 2026. La Monnaie has received two nominations: the first for the opera Medusa and the second for the Green Opera project.
The former General and Artistic Director of La Monnaie will succeed Markus Hinterhäuser and take up his new position in Salzburg on 1 October, following the 2027 Festival edition.
