Christophe Gay

After a comprehensive curriculum at Nancy Conservatoire under the tutorship of Christiane Stutzmann, Christophe Gay won an award at the "Les Symphonies d'automne" competition in Macon in the Opera category, and was Adami Classical Revelation in 2004.

After his debut at Nancy Opera in Il Prigioniero by Luigi Dallapiccola, he was much applauded in Paris at the Cité de la Musique, at the Opéra Comique, but also at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (in l'Orfeo under the direction of René Jacobs) and at the opera houses of Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Rouen, Toulon, Avignon and Strasbourg.

His career also took an international turn: after Italy where he sang at the Montepulciano Festival (Tuscany) in the world premiere of Enigma by Detlev Glanert, he was invited to Luxembourg, Germany (Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Braunschweig), Belgium (Brussels) and to the prestigious Glyndebourne Festival in David McVicar's production of Carmen.

His repertoire is varied. He performed in many productions of Baroque operas such as Iphigénie en Tauride by Gluck, l'Orfeo, Platée, King Arthur, Castor et Pollux, Dido and Aeneas under the direction of conductors such as René Jacobs, Christophe Rousset, Hervé Niquet... He was also entrusted leading Mozart roles: Don Giovanni, Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) and Papageno (Die Zauberflöte).

He is also much in demand in the large repertoire of XIXth and XXth centuries. Among his performances are Carmen, Rigoletto, Lakmé, Andrea Chenier, Madama Butterfly, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Wozzeck, Candide... He also performed at the Opéra Comique in Chabrier's L'Etoile led by Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Les Mamelles de Tiresias by Poulenc. He also sang the title role in Der Kaiser von Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann in Nancy, at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, then in Caen and Luxembourg City.

In concerts, he sang in Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Fauré's Requiem, Bacalov's Misa Tango, La Pastorale by Charpentier, Mors e Vita by Gounod, the Messa di Gloria by Puccini, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, Le Poème de l’Amour et de la Mer by Chausson among many others.

His recent highlights include Les Contes d'Hoffmann (directed by Laurent Pelly) in Lyon and Tokyo, L’Italienne à Alger, L'Etoile and Les Mamelles de Tiresias in Nancy, King Arthur in Versailles, Platée in Stuttgart, Don Giovanni in Saint-Céré, the world premiere of La Lettre des sables in Bordeaux, Lakmé in Toulon, the creation of Mimi at the Bouffes du Nord Theater, La Traviata, Manon and Hamlet in Marseille, Lakmé in Avignon, Madama Butterfly at the Chorégies d'Orange and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, La Vie Parisienne in Avignon, Marseille, Lausanne, Québec, Carmen in Nice, Antibes, the Opéra national du Rhin Rigoletto , La Traviata, Yvonne Princesse de Bourgogne by Boesmans and Iphigénie en Tauride at the Opéra de Paris, Le Roi Carotte by Offenbach staged by Laurent Pelly at the Opéra de Lyon and the Opéra de Lille, Barbe-bleue by Offenbach also staged by Laurent Pelly at the Opéra de Lyon and the Opéra de Lausanne, Ariadne auf Naxos in Limoges, Les Mamelles de Tirésias in Glyndebourne, La Princesse de Trébizonde with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Coups de roulis by Messager with Les Frivolités Parisiennes, L’Heure espagnole with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, Roméo et Juliette, Carmen (Escamillo) and La Cenerentola in Québec, Don Giovanni aux enfers, creation by Simon Steen Andersen for the festival Musica, and Giuditta at the Opéra national du Rhin, La Chauve-souris at the Opéra de Lille, Fortunio in the part of Azincourt in Limoges and Rennes and in the part of Clavaroche at the Opéra de Lausanne.

Among his projects this season: La Tempête by Frank Martin at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Die lustige Witwe at the Opéra-théâtre de Metz, Giuditta at the Opéra de Lausanne, La Traviata at the Opéra de Vichy, but also Carmina burana in concert with the Orchestre La Belle Image in Epinal.

September 2026

^{This biography should not be edited without permission from Intermezzo.}