Manon Lescaut is an opera or opéra comique in three acts by Daniel Auber to a libretto by Eugène Scribe, and, like Puccini's Manon Lescaut and Massenet's Manon, is based on the Abbé Prévost's novel Manon Lescaut (1731). Auber's version is nowadays the least-performed of the three.
Esclarmonde is an opéra in four acts and eight tableaux, with prologue and epilogue, by Jules Massenet, to a French libretto by Alfred Blau and Louis Ferdinand de Gramont. It was first performed at the Exposition Universelle on 15 May 1889 by the Opéra-Comique at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Place du Châtelet in Paris.
Myung-whun Chung is a South Korean conductor and pianist.
Pinchas Steinberg is a conductor born in mandatory Palestine. He is currently the Chief Conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra.
Michel Plasson is a French conductor.
Jean Fournet was a French flautist and conductor.
Sharon Coste is a French soprano of Canadian origin.
Grant Llewellyn is a Welsh conductor and music director of the North Carolina Symphony and Orchestre National de Bretagne.
Emmanuel Villaume is a French orchestra conductor. He is currently music director of the Dallas Opera and chief conductor of the Prague Philharmonia.
Bruno Weil is a German symphonic conductor. He is principal guest conductor of Tafelmusik, the period-instrument group based in Toronto, Music Director of the Carmel Bach Festival in California, and artistic director of the period-instrument festival "Klang und Raum" in Irsee, Bavaria. He has served as General Music Director of Augsburg (1981–1989), and of Duisburg (1989–2002). He currently serves as Professor of Conducting at the State Academy for Music and Theater in Munich.
Massenet Festival is a biennale festival of music by French composer, Jules Massenet held in Saint-Étienne, France, close to the area where the composer was born. The first Massenet Festival took place in November 1990 when the opera Cléopâtre and the oratorio La Vierge were presented. In recent years, performances have been given in the Grand Théâtre Massenet, one of the theatres of the Opéra Théâtre de Saint-Etienne, and formerly known as L'Esplanade.
Jules Danbé was a French violinist, composer and conductor, mainly of opera.
Françoys Joseph Arthur Maurice Bernier was a Canadian pianist, conductor, radio producer, arts administrator, and music educator. He served as the music director of the Montreal Festivals from 1956 to 1960 and was an active conductor and a producer for CBC Radio during the 1950s and early 1960s. He was the General Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec from 1960 to 1966 and then the orchestra's Music Director from 1966 to 1968. He was also active as a teacher of conducting at a number of universities, notably serving as the first director of the Music Department at the University of Ottawa.
Laurence Dale is an English tenor, artistic director and conductor.
Alain Pâris is a French conductor and musicologist.
Daniel Klajner is a Swiss conductor.
Jean Périsson was a French conductor.
Pierre Bleuse is a French violinist and conductor.
Elsa Dreisig is a French-Danish operatic soprano. Based at the Berlin State Opera, she made a European career in both opera and concert. Her opera roles include, besides the standard lyric soprano repertoire such as Mozart's Fiordiligi and Bizet's Micaëla, Baroque opera such as Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, and the world premiere of Beat Furrer's Violetter Schnee.
Laurent Campellone is a French conductor.
Known around the world for his expertise in the French opera of the Romantic era, he is often compared to Michel Plasson. Critics consider him today as "one of the best defenders in the world" of this repertoire.
He is currently the General Manager of the Opéra de Tours.
