Death of Hugues Gall, former director of the Grand Théâtre de Genève

– A “major figure in the opera world” has passed away

The Frenchman, former director of the Grand Théâtre de Genève and who grew up in Lausanne, died during the night from Friday to Saturday. He was 84 years old.

Caroline Rieder / ATS

Posted today at 6:04 p.m.

Hugues Gall, May 5, 2004, in the library of the Institut de France in Paris.

AFP

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The lyrical world has lost a striking personality. Hugues Gall, former director of the Paris Opera, died at his home in Nice, during the night from Friday to Saturday, at the age of 84. He was also an important cultural actor for French-speaking Switzerland, since he directed the Grand Théâtre de Genève for fifteen years, from 1980 to 1995. A notable reign, as was his enthronement, where he summoned Maurice Béjart to put in place Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” scene.

His links with the Lake Geneva region do not date from this period, however, since this native of Honfleur spent part of his childhood in Lausanne, where he arrived at the age of 7. There he sang in a choir where he studied lyric choirs, learned the piano and the violin. The newspaper “Le Figaro” recalls in particular a concert in Lausanne which marked him at the age of 12, where Furtwängler conducted Beethoven.

The Grand Théâtre de Genève spoke on Sunday of an “exceptional director”, who, during his mandate, “infused a particular glory into the institution, giving it a real influence, highlighting its excellence thanks to remarkable productions”.

According to the president of the foundation board of the Grand Théâtre, Xavier Auberson, Hugues Gall gave it “a great artistic opening”. He “contributed enormously to its development towards a global opera, a mixture of all artistic expressions, notably lyrical, theatrical and musical”.

“Success” of the Opéra Bastille

Before coming to the City of Calvin, Hugues Gall had been deputy director to the director of the Paris Opera Rolf Liebermann between 1973 and 1980. In 1995, he returned to the City of Light to direct the Paris Opera until July 2004.

“These nine years will have seen the finally established success of the Opéra Bastille project, associated with the Palais Garnier in a solidly unified relationship: 360 performances per year on the two stages, in front of nearly 900,000 spectators; 80 lyrical productions and a commissioning policy which made it possible to bring creation to the Opéra Bastille,” recalls the French Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was a member.

Its permanent secretary Laurent Petitgirard saluted “the memory of a major personality in the world of opera, music and cultural administration”.

“Great servant” of lyrical art

In 2008, Hugues Gall took over the management of the House and Gardens of Claude Monet-Giverny, not far from Paris, for a first five-year mandate, renewed until his death.

The French Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, for her part praised a “great servant” of culture and lyrical art, who “was able to leave his mark on French and Swiss cultural life.”