Sunday 29 March, 18:30

Spring Ball: Playford Country Dances

Performances

Villa Dutoit

Free

Led by maître à danser Alain Christen, this spring ball revives Playford-era country dances through shared movement and live music. Ensemble Le banquet d’Apollon accompanies the participants: François Mützenberg on recorders, chalumeau and galoubet; Marie-Claire Bettens on recorders and viol; Lisette Aubert on viol. The programme draws from John Playford’s 1651 English Dancing Master, offering a varied, spirited repertoire where popular tunes meet learned composition, inviting dancers of all levels into lively, convivial patterns.

Chemin Gilbert-Trolliet 5,
1209 Petit-Saconnex

Photo Credit: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France

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Photo Credit: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France

Sunday 15 February, 17:30

Antigone à la nuit

Performances

Jardin botanique

Performed by Françoise Boillat with Guillaume Béguin, Antigone at Night is a spare, intimate staging from Scènes du Grütli that sets the heroine before seven remarkable trees as silent witnesses to human conflicts. The piece probes justice, submission and insubordination through restrained physicality and poetic text, while a subtle soundscape and attentive lighting sculpt moments of solitude and confrontation, letting centuries-old trunks resonate with the moral weight of inherited laws.

In French.

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Sunday 15 February, 19:00

Sehnsucht Recital

Performances

Salle Trocmé

The Lied et Mélodie association opens its season with Sehnsucht, bringing together four leading artists from the French-speaking Swiss scene: soprano Léonie Renaud, mezzo-soprano Carine Séchaye, clarinettist Damien Bachmann and pianist Christian Chamorel. Spanning Schubert, Brahms, Elgar and Chaminade, the programme explores longing and melancholy through rare and emblematic vocal works, performed with great expressive intensity by internationally acclaimed musicians.

Musicologist Hélène Pierrakos will introduce the programme at 19:00.
In French.

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14 – 15 February

La commedia dell’arte et le jeu masqué

Performances

Auditorium Ansermet

Born in northern Italy in the 16th century, Commedia dell’arte shaped opera and European theatre. Under the direction of Rafael Bianciotto, specialist in masked performance, singers from the Haute école de musique de Genève’s vocal department explore mask work, improvisation and the embodiment of stock characters such as Arlecchino, Pantalone, Colombina and Scapin. Meta Červ and Ama Martin accompany on piano, while Bianciotto’s staging combines pedagogical rigor with playful physicality to reveal comic and dramatic nuances.

In French.

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5 February – 1 March

Festival Antigel

Cool Stuff Performances

Multiple locations

Festival Antigel transforms Geneva into an experimental cultural playground each winter, a three-week laboratory of innovation. Programming mixes renowned and emerging artists across music, performance and visual projects, revealing unexpected sites and blending disciplines. The festival foregrounds diversity and social engagement, bringing together varied audiences through bold curations. Lighting, sound and staging often shape intimate, cinematic atmospheres, while collaborative projects emphasize discovery, collective energy and the thrill of shared, ephemeral encounters.

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5 – 15 February

LETTRE À MON DICTATEUR

Performances

POCHE /GVE

Directed by Geneviève Pasquier and performed by Vincent Babel, LETTRE À MON DICTATEUR stages Eugène’s cathartic gesture of writing to Nicolae Ceauşescu. The production blends intimate monologue with archival echoes, folding fragments of Pierre Omer’s Swing Revue into a jazz-tinged score that punctuates memory and revelation. The creative space favors spare tableaux, tactile sound textures and a nimble rhythm that offsets historical weight with mischievous warmth, transforming personal trauma into a tender, witty coming-of-age confession.

In French.

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11 – 15 February

Kevin

Performances

Théâtre le douze dix-huit

The company Chantal et Bernadette explores, with both naïveté and documentary precision, the foundations and challenges of the education system through the story of Kévin, who feels let down by it. By merging scientific inquiry with theatrical expression, they engage the audience’s critical thinking. This production is a collaborative creation by Arnaud Hoedt, Jérôme Piron, Antoine Defoort, and Clément Thirion, developed in close partnership with researchers, with special attention to set design and technical aspects.

In French.

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Spring Ball: Playford Country Dances