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OLIVIER LEXA
ABOUT
Historian and musician by training, Oliver Lexa began his professional career in the theatre. He has managed several cultural institutions, alongside his research and stage work.
Based on a series of seeming oxymorons, Olivier’s work explores dualisms leading to an “augmented” reality: comic/tragic, shadow/light, visible/invisible, movement/stillness, tension/release, speech/silence, minimalism/opulence, historical/contemporary. These ‘axes’ allow him to traverse the borders between writing and staging, the academic sphere and the creative world.
TIMELINE
2007-2009: Director general of the Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française in Paris and Venice.
2010-2017: Artistic Director of the Venetian Centre for Baroque Music in Venice.
2011: Publication of his first novel, Morceaux choisis (Léo Scheer) and of his essay Venise, l’Eveil du Baroque. Collaboration with Christian Boltanski for the French pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
2014: Stage direction of L’Eritrea by Francesco Cavalli produced by Teatro La Fenice, Venice. Publication of his biography of Francesco Cavalli (Actes-Sud).
2015: Publication of La Musique à Venise (Actes-Sud).
2016: Stage direction of L’Oristeo by Cavalli (Criée – Opéra de Marseille). Dramaturge with the stage director Alvis Hermanis for I Due Foscari and Madama Butterfly at the Teatro alla Scala (Milan). Dramaturge for L’Opera seria by Gassmann at La Monnaie (Bruxelles) under the stage direction of Patrick Kinmonth. Publication of the novel L’Education vénitienne.
2017: Stage direction of Angeli e demoni at the Doge’s Palace in Venice and at Carnegie Hall, New York (music by Claudio Monteverdi conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón). Dramaturge for Corpi Ingrati at the Ballet National de Marseille with the choreagraphers Emio Greco and Pieter Scholten. Publication of Monteverdi et Wagner. Penser l'opéra. “Programmateur associé” for the French Pavilion “Studio Venezia” by Xavier Veilhan at the Venice Biennale
2017-2020: Artistic Director of Fondazione delle Arti – Venezia, Venice.
2018: Stage Direction of Naïs by Rameau at the Warsaw Philharmonic and Opera Nova, Bydgoszcz.
2019: Publication of Léonard de Vinci. L’invention de l’opéra. Stage direction of Le Silence des ombres (Maeterlinck/Attahir) at La Monnaie (Brussels).
2020: Stage direction of Camera oscura at Spazio Cre.Zi.Plus, Palermo.
2021-2022: Curator of the cultural season of the Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome.
2021: Publication of his anthology and translation of Poems by Lorenzo de’ Medici (Rivages).
2022: Stage direction of Fedra by Seneca in Siracusa for the INDA Academy (Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico).
From 2022: Freelance consultant, dramaturge and author (Philharmonie de Paris, Philharmonie du Luxembourg, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Festival d'Ambronay...).
MAIN COLLABORATIONS
Theatres, festivals and concert halls
Carnegie Hall, New York
Chapelle musicale Reine Élisabeth, Waterloo
La Criée, Théâtre National de Marseille
Festival d'Ambronay
Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence
Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico, Siracusa
La Monnaie, Brussels
Opéra de Marseille
Opéra de Paris
Opera Nova, Bydgoszcz
Orchestre de Paris
Orchestre Symphonique de Québec
Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de musique romantique française, Venice
Philharmonie de Paris
Philharmonie du Luxembourg
Teatro alla Scala, Milan
Teatro La Fenice, Venice
Théâtre national de l'Opéra-Comique, Paris
Théâtres de la ville de Luxembourg
Warsaw National Opera - Teatr Wielki, Warsaw
Warsaw Philharmonic, Warsaw
Universities, schools and institutes
École française d’Athènes, Athens
ENOA (European Network of Opera Academies)
Institut culturel italien de Paris
Institut français, Palermo
Istituto Europeo di Design, Venice
Istituto Veneto, Venice
Università Bocconi, Milan
Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice
Université de Provence Aix-Marseille I
Université Paris-Nanterre
Université Paris Sorbonne-Paris IV
Foundations and museums
La Biennale, Venice
Fondazione Prada, Venice
Fondazione Musei Civici, Venice
François Pinault Foundation
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome
Publishing houses and reviews
Actes Sud
Archives Karéline
Éditions du Cerf
Éditions Léo Scheer
Electa
Lineadacqua
Payot Rivages
Revue Un Philosophe
Record labels
Alpha
Deutsche Grammophon
Erato
Naïve Records
Ricercar
Juries
Concours Corneille
Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon
Concorso Internazionale di Musica Antica, Vicenza
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