Opéra Bastille Chamber Music Concert Series

This season, the Amphithéâtre of the Opéra Bastille will resonate with five exceptional chamber music concerts, offering a refined panorama of both classical and contemporary repertoire.

The first programme will celebrate Bohemia, featuring works from Joseph Suk, Bedřich Smetana, and Antonín Dvořák—three major figures of Czech classical music.

This will be followed by a concert with a surprising theme, Between the Ardennes and Brittany, featuring Joseph Jongen, Claude Debussy, and Jean Cras. Each represents a refined musical language from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Jongen combines lyricism and virtuosity, Debussy revolutionises harmony through impressionism, and Cras blends modernity with maritime influences in an elegant body of work shaped by his naval career.

Luciano Berio will be the central figure of the third concert, with his Folk Songs, which revisit traditional melodies through a modernist and expressive lens. As for Jean-Marie Rens, a contemporary Belgian composer, he explores spectral music and oral traditions in his Folk Songs, blending sonic research with collective memory.

The fourth evening presents two incredible sextets—one by Korngold and one by Mozart. Korngold’s String Sextet Op. 10, written at the age of 17, combines post-Romantic lyricism with Viennese harmonic sophistication. Mozart’s Sestetto concertante, K. 364, in reality a symphonia concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra, unites classical grace and concertante dialogue in a vivid and emotive work.

Finally, the season will conclude with a remarkable work by Wynton Marsalis. A Fiddler’s Tale, inspired by Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat, blends jazz, narration, and classical influences. This piece for seven musicians and a narrator tells the story of a violinist ensnared by the devil, offering a critique of contemporary artistic corruption in a vibrant and rhythmic style.

Performed by musicians from the Orchestra of the Paris National Opera, these concerts promise moments of grace in the intimate acoustic setting of the Amphithéâtre—between virtuosity and emotion.

A season that celebrates the masters of the genre and the art of shared listening.

Friday, 26 September 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
An Autumn in Bohemia
With the musicians of the Paris Opera Orchestra
Joseph Suk: Meditation on a Old Czech Chorale
Bedrich Smetana: Quatuor n°2
Antonin Dvorak: Quintette op. 97

Wednesday, 4 March 2026 at 8:00 p.m.
Between the Ardennes and Brittany
With the musicians of the Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris
Joseph Jongen: Concert à cinq op. 71
Claude Debussy: Sonate pour flûte, alto et harpe
Jean Cras: Quintette

Sunday, 29 March 2026 at 8:00 p.m.
Tribute to Luciano Berio
With the musicians of the Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris
Jean-Marie Rivens: Onze Folk Songs d'ici et d'ailleurs (French Premiere)
Luciano Berio: Folk Songs

Wednesday, 22 April 2026 at 8:00 p.m.
Austrian Spring
With the musicians of the Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String sextuor op. 10
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sestetto concertante K. 364

Saturday, 13 June 2026 at 8:00 p.m.
A Fiddler's Tale
With the musicians of the Paris Opera Orchestra
Wynton Marsalis: A Fiddler's Tale