The Chorus

It was in 1972, when the Syndicat Intercommunal de l'Opéra du Rhin between the cities of Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Colmar was set up that the framework of the Chorus of the Opéra national du Rhin was created. Since 2001 this permanent company of 44 singers has been directed by Michel Capperon who has been able to enhance their professional abilities and give them a rare homogeneity and sound. Their great quality is regularly highlighted in the press and they have participated in many recordings, several with the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg :  La Belle Hélène, The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte, Turandot and Roberto Devereux, as well a Entfuhrung aus dem Seraglio with the Arts Florissants conducted by William Christie. As guest performers in most of the major festivals in France, we note their  appearance at the festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Strasbourg, Saint-Denis, Carcassonne, Vichy, of Radio France, Montpellier, Savonlinna in Finland  (Der Freischütz and Dialogues des carmélites) and at the Proms in London (Dialogues des carmélites).

As artists in the chorus but also as good actors, they participate in the productions of the Opéra national du Rhin, both in the works of the mainstream repertoire and also in new contemporary works. We were able to appreciate their talents in a new work by Giorgio Battistelli : Prova d'orchestra, specially written for them, as well as in Tristes tropiques by Georges Aperghis. They appear in concerts with the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg (Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's  IX^e Symphony, the Stabat Mater...) and also with the Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse. The chorus also makes guest appearances at other opera houses, inter alia in  Iphigenia in Tauride at Rennes, Sigurd by Reyer and Étienne Marcel by Camille Saint-Saëns in Montpellier, Samson andt Dalila in Nantes, Le Roi d'Ys by Lalo at the Capitole in Toulouse.