The Director in Contemporary Opera: To Listen or to Watch?

With the support of the French Institute in Russia

A lecture by French opera director Antoine Gindt, “Staging Contemporary Opera, an introduction to Francesco Filidei’s opera Giordano Bruno” (45 minutes); a video-screening of Gindt's production of Giordano Bruno (1 hour, 35 minutes); followed by a Q&A session with the director.

Antoine Gindt is an opera director and a producer. He was assistant to George Apergis in the Atem company (1992-1997), and, since 1997, has run the T & M (Théâtre et Musique) theatre studio in Paris. He has worked with many composers, including: George Apergis, Franco Donatoni, Pascal Dusapin, Francesco Filidei, Gerard Pesson, Salvatore Sciarrino.

He directed The Garden Passion by Silvano Bussotti (2017, Theatre in Nimes), and has worked with such composers as: Betsy Jolas (The Iliad of Love, 2016, Paris Philharmonic); Francesco Filidei (Giordano Bruno, 2015, Music House in Porto), Sebastian Rivas (The Allies, 2015, Theater in Gennevilliers), and Jonathan Dav-Graham, whose interpretation of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelungs he staged at the House of Music in Porto. He directed the staging of Wanderer, Post-Scriptum, a solo concert by baritone Ivan Lyudlov (2013), the musical works Not So (Stefano Gervazoni, 2008), Kafka Fragments (Gyorgy Kurtag, 2007), The Rake (Igor Stravinsky, 2007, 2009), a concert in honor of Luciano Berio (2006), Medea (Pascal Dusapin, 2005) and Richter – a chamber documentary opera (Mario Lorenzo, 2003).

He is the author of numerous articles on contemporary music, and the publisher of a collective work on Georges Apergis (Corps Musical, 1990). In 2009 he conducted a master class called Making an Opera at the theatre festival in Aix-en-Provence. In 2012, with the composer Giorgio Battistelli, he was invited to lecture at the Chigi Music Academy in Siena. He was one of the organizers of educational programs at the Venice Biennale-2017.

Giordano Bruno is the first opera by the young composer Francesco Filidei, staged in 2015. The director of the film version, which conveys the hidden connection between the action and music, is Philippe Bezat.