Opéra de Biarritz Pays Basque – Carte Blanche à «Marina Viotti»

Marina Viotti, a Franco-Swiss mezzo-soprano, named Opera Singer of the Year at the 2024 Victoires de la Musique and a Grammy Award winner, is treating herself to a Carte Blanche program entirely in her own image, at the crossroads of opera, French chanson, and jazz, accompanied by the Opera Symphony Orchestra and its chorus, conducted by Nicholas McRoberts. Marina Viotti has crafted this program much like one writes a letter: Bizet because one never tires of him, Piaf and Brel because they move you to tears without warning, Saint-Saëns to stir the soul, and Gershwin for the velvety smoothness of jazz. At her side, bass-baritone Mark Kurmanbayev—a rising star on the European opera scene (Berliner Philharmoniker, San Carlo, Netherlands Opera), joins her for duets that the press has already hailed: “The magic happened the moment the two voices came together.” A pinnacle of elegance and t