About this Artist

Swiss-French Bass-Baritone GILLES CACHEMAILLE has, over the years, developed into one of the few top interpreters of French music. After starting his career at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1982 he was chosen by the late Herbert von Karajan to appear in Carmen with the Berlin Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival. Ever since he has been performing with the leading opera houses, orchestras and Festivals in Europe and USA under the most prestigious conductors and stage directors of the present time. The artist's voice has been widely recorded with more than 30 discs to his credit.

Besides the French repertoire with highlights such as "Méphistophélès" / La Damnation de Faust and "Golaud" / Pelleas et Melisande, Gilles Cachemaille devotes a large part of his time to roles of Mozart operas such as the title part & "Leporello" / Don Giovanni, "Figaro" / Nozze Di Figaro, "Guglielmo" & "Don Alfonso" / Così fan tutte as well as "Papageno" / Zauberflöte. As an impressive stage personality, the artist also created a highly acclaimed portrayal of "Nick Shadow" in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, "Sulpice" in Donizetti's La fille du regiment and "Musiklehrer" in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos.

Another important part of Gilles Cachemaille's artistic activity are oratorios, masses and concert works like the Fauré Requiem, Elias, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Dvorák's Biblical Songs, Frank Martin's Jedermann Monologe and Golgotha, Berlioz' L'enfance du Christ, Schumann's Faust-Szenen, Mendelssohn's Walpurgisnacht as well as Bach's Matthäus- & Johannes- Passion. When J.E. Gardiner presented Berlioz' rediscovered Messe Solennelle to the public of this century, Gilles Cachemaille was invited to sing the bass part, both on the European concert tour as well as on the first ever gramophone and video recording.

For the 50th anniversary of the Aix-en-Provence Festival (1998), Peter Brook and Claudio Abbado chose Gilles Cachemaille to sing "Leporello" in the opening production of Don Giovanni as well as on tour in Stockholm, Lyon and Milan. In January/February 1999 the artist continued to sing "Leporello", this time in another production of Don Giovanni at the Grand Théâtre de Genève under the baton of Armin Jordan. Following an invitation of the Festival of Perth, Gilles Cachemaille performed mélodies by Francis Poulenc in Australia, together with the pianist Pascal Rogé and the Quintette Moragues in February 1999. At the Vienna Festival 1999, the artist has been praised as "Mephisto" & "Böser Geist" in Schumann's Faust-Szenen under the baton of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and, in June 1999, was acclaimed for his portrayal of Elias in Marseilles. In summer 1999, Gilles Cachemaille returned to the Festival of Aix-en-Provence as "Leporello" in Peter Brook's Don Giovanni production.

Further appearances also include Albert in Werther, both at the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam and at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Toronto Opera, Méphistophélès in La damnation de Faust, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, C.P.E. Bach's Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu at the 2000 Lucerne Festival, Golaud in concert performances of Pélleas et Mélisande with the Cleveland Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, and Friar Laurence in Berlioz' Roméo et Juliette with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit in Tokyo and with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin under Kent Nagano.

Engagements during the 2002/2003 season include Roméo et Juliette with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle and Fauré's Requiem with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marek Janowski. Future engagements include the title part in a scenic production of Handel's Saul at the Ruhr-Triennale 2003 as well as Mamm'Agata in a new production of Donizetti's Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (The Uses and Misuses of the Theater) at the Dresden State Opera.