1. Career
     Debuts    Paris Opera  

2. Awards

3. Bibliography

4. References

5. External links

Nicolas Joel (or Joël^[1]) (born 6 February 1953) is a French theatre director and administrator of opera houses. He was director of the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse from 1990 to 2009 and then director of the Paris Opera from 2009 to 2014.

He is conductor Emmanuel Joel-Hornak's brother.^[2]

Career

Debuts

Joel was born in Paris, where he studied. In 1973, he was hired at the Opéra du Rhin (Strasbourg) as assistant director, a position he held until 1978 in Strasbourg, at the Bayreuth Festival, the Salzburg Festival, and the San Francisco Opera. In 1979, he began his directing career with a production of Der Ring des Nibelungen for the Rhine and Lyon operas. In 1981, he directed Samson et Dalila with Shirley Verrett and Placido Domingo in San Francisco, then Aida with Luciano Pavarotti in San Francisco, Chicago, and Toronto.

He directed a second "Ring" for the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Aida at the Vienna State Opera, Poulenc's La Voix humaine, Ernani and Parsifal in San Francisco, Lohengrin in Copenhagen, Eugene Onegin, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci in Amsterdam and Gothenburg, Rigoletto and La Traviata in Zurich, Salomé in Essen, Boris Godunov and I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Bremen, Orpheus in the Underworld in Lausanne. He also directed Tosca in Lausanne for José van Dam's debut as Scarpia. In 1994, he made his debut at La Scala in Milan with Puccini's La rondine, then took over Gounod's Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden and set up Carmen at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

In 1995, he staged Faust in San Francisco, then made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera of New York in 1996, with a new production of Andrea Chénier (with Luciano Pavarotti in the title role). In 1998, Joel was active at the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Les Pêcheurs de perles, at the Teatro Real of Madrid for Un ballo in maschera, at the Teatro Massimo of Palermo for Aida and at the Metropolitan Opera for Lucia di Lammermoor. In 1999, he started a new production of Manon at La Scala in Milan. He also covered Werther and Samson and Dalila in Los Angeles, Roméo et Juliette in Chicago and Covent Garden in London, and Manon at the Teatro Real of Madrid (2000). In 2002, he presented a new production of La rondine at Covent Garden.

Sur les scènes françaises, il réalise, entre autres, Roméo et Juliette, Turandot and Thaïs à Nancy, (revived at the Théâtre national de l'Opéra-Comique in Paris and at the Capitole de Toulouse), La Gioconda and Les Vêpres siciliennes at the Opéra national de Montpellier, Debussy's La Damoiselle élue and Purcell's Dido and Æneas with Jessye Norman at the Paris Opera, Faust and the world premiere of Marcel Landowski's Montségur in Toulouse, Andrea Chénier at the Opéra du Rhin and the Opéra de Lyon. At the Paris Opera, he presents a new production of Un Bal masqué à Paris in 1992 and Parsifal in Nice in 1994. In 1987, Joel was invited by the Chorégies d'Orange for Der Fliegende Holländer and returned there for Nabucco (1989 and 1994), Faust (1990), Aïda (1991 and 2001), Carmen (1998), Roméo et Juliette (2002), Otello (2003) and La Bohème (2005).

From 1990 to 2009, Joel was artistic director of the Capitole de Toulouse. He produced new performances of Falstaff, Il trovatore, Elektra, Eugen Oneguine, then Rigoletto and Roméo et Juliette with Roberto Alagna. For the reopening of the Théâtre du Capitole in 1996, he presented a new production of Charpentier's Louise and Werther. Among his productions in Toulouse, Wagner's Ring,Boris Godunov,La forza del destino, Louise, Hamlet (these last two productions were taken over at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris), Otello, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the Magic Flute. He reopened the Théâtre du Capitole, after the renovation of the stage cage, in October 2004, with a new production of Jenůfa.

Among his latest engagements are Carmen at La Scala in Milan, Daphne at the Vienna Staatsoper, Roméo et Juliette in Beijing, Aida in Chicago, Sicilian Vespers in Palermo in 2004, La Wally in Düsseldorf, (April 2005) and La Forza del destino in Zurich. He has also directed Aida in Zurich, Faust at the Vienna State Opera, The Tales of Hoffmann in Madrid (2006) and covered La rondine at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (2008).

Paris Opera

As from 1 August 2009, he is appointed Director of the Paris Opera in replacement of Gerard Mortier.^[3]

In 2011, under his leadership, the institution fulfilled its mission and recorded a successful attendance rate: nearly 800,000 spectators^[4][5] and a attendance rate of 94.1%, 1.7% higher than in 2010. It has also seen a strong renewal of the public since a quarter of the tickets purchased without a subscription were purchased by new spectators, 65,000 young people were able to attend the shows for less than 25 € and 25,000 schoolchildren were welcomed.

2011 was also a great year for the Paris Opera in terms of programming, with 351 opera and ballet performances.^[6] In the midst of the jewels of the repertoire, a strong place has once again been made for contemporary creation with Bruno Mantovani's opera Akhmatova and {{ill|Jean-Guillaume Bart|fr}}'s ballet La Source, Alexei Ratmansky's Psyché and Wayne McGregor's L’Anatomie de la sensation.^[7]

The Paris Opera is now a successful cultural company with a positive result of €5.5 million^[4] thanks to an increase in its own resources. This result made it possible to reduce the amount of tickets sold for opera in the popular categories by €5.^[8] et permet de maintenir un niveau de subvention stable^[9][10] over the past three years, which does not exceed 55 % of revenue.^[11]

In October 2012, Joel announced that he would no longer be a candidate for his own succession after learning of the Opera's budgetary trajectory for the coming years. This meant a 2.5% reduction in subsidies in 2013, both in 2014 and 2015. In addition to all this, in 2013 a drawdown of 3.7 million from the Opera's financial reserves was made.^[12] It was finally announced in September 2013 that Joel will retire one year before the deadline, in August 2014: he was replaced as director by Stéphane Lissner.^[13]

Awards

Joel has twice received the Drama and Music Critics Award for his lyrical productions, as well as a Victoire de la Musique in 1996, in the category "Best Lyrical Production" for the Dialogues of the Carmelites.

Joel has been an officer of the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur since 2014.^[14]

Bibliography

• {{Cite news|language=fr|author1={{ill|Bertrand Dermoncourt|fr}} |author2=Jérémy Rousseau|title=Nicolas Joel ou les bonheurs manqués |journal=Classica |volume= |issue=164 |location= |year= 2014 |pages=56–65 |ISSN=1287-4329}}

References

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