© L’esplanade Saint-Etienne

Winner of the Salzburg First International Prize in 1982, Patrick Fournillier was Artistic Director of the Academy Orchestra from 1984 to 1986. In July 1986 he experienced great success and enthusiastic approvals from both the public and press in substituting Emmanuel Krivine in Verdi's Il Corsaro in Nimes. In 1987 he won second prize in the prize for the Polish Music interpretation, the Orchestra Prize and the Public Prize at the third Katowice International Competition (Poland). Since then, he has been invited to conduct the Gdansk Orchestra, the Cracow Orchestra, the Philharmonic and the Opera in Warsaw, as well as making several recordings at the Polish Radio. Patrick Fournillier regularly conducts the Romande Swiss Orchestra; the Europe Chamber Orchestra; the Czech Philharmonic; the Gran Teatro Liceu Orchestra in Barcelona; the Radio-France New Philharmonic Orchestra; the Lyon National Orchestra; the Bordeaux-Aquitaine National Orchestra; the Lyon Opera; the Warsaw Philharmonic; the Opéra National de Paris Orchestra; the Prague Symphony Orchestra; the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna; the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra; the Welsh National Opera; the Opéra de Monte Carlo Orchestra; and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

In January 1988, Patrick Fournillier led Amadis as Music Director at the Massenet Festival in Saint-Etienne. A few months later, he recorded this opera (on the Forlane label) together with the National Theatre Chorus and the Paris Opera Orchestra, gaining the Orphée d'Or and the SACD Prize for the best recording of a French composer. During the first Massenet Festival, in 1990, he conducted Cleopatra and the oratorio La Vierge, followed by Esclarmonde in 1992, and in 1994, Grisélidis, Panurge and Le Cid and Gounod's Sapho.

During the 1988/9 season, Alain Lombard asked him to become First Guest Conductor at the Orchestre Nationale Bordeaux-Aquitaine and also that year, Patrick Fournillier conducted Quatre-Vingt-Treize, written by Duhamel (Opéra de Lyon, 1989) for the bicentenary of the French Revolution. The same year, he conducted Thérèse, for a new production at the National Theatre in Zagreb, and the gala concert for the re-opening of the Opéra Comique Salle Favart in Paris, with June Anderson, Rockwell Blake, and the Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris. In December, at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, with the Romande Swiss Orchestra, he led the production Postilion de Longiumeau by Adam, which was broadcast by 25 television channels at the same time. From 1989 to 1992 he was Permanent Director at the Picardy Sinfonietta in Amiens. Together with this orchestra, he played at the Opéra Comique de Paris in 1990 for the discovery of Auber's Manon Lescaut (live recording for Chant du Monde) and in 1991 he took part in the first recording of Haydn’s unpublished cantata Applausus (Opus 111). In Italy, in July 1991, he was invited by Riccardo Muti to conduct Auber's La Muette de Portici at the Ravenna Festival and subsequently led Tosca at the Teatro la Fenice di Venezia. At the 1992 Prague Spring Festival he experienced great success conducting the Prague Philharmonic Chorus and Symphony Orchestra in La Vierge.

In July 1993 he recorded several arias from French operas for EMI with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, gaining many important awards: Choc du Monde de la Musique, Diapason d'Or de l'Année, the Opéra International Timbre de Platine, 10 de Repertoire and the Académie Charles Cros. The 1993/4 season saw him in Cardiff with Welsh National Opera (Massenet’s Cendrilion) and in Milan at La Scala (Massenet’s Histoire de Manon), where he returned in March 1995 for Berlioz’s Le Rouge et le Noir. In 1995 he also made his debut on the podium of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. During the 1995/6 season he was Music Director at Saint-Etienne Opera Esplanade, where he led such new productions as Carmen, Dialogue des Carmelites, Un ballo in Maschera, and Il barbiere di Siviglia.

He was also on the podium of the Martina Franca Festival (Cherubini’s Médée); the Orchestre National de Lyon; the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (La sonnambula); the Saint-Gallen Theatre (Don Quichotte); English Chamber Orchestra; and of the Opéra de Monte Carlo (Chérubin).

In 1996/7 season he was the recipient of the Grand Prix du Disque for his recording (EMI) of French Opera Arias with Natalie Dessay and the Orchestre Philharmonic de Monte Carlo. He conducted the new production of Faust at the Teatro alla Scala; La Bohème at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Thaïs at Massenet Festival; Otello and Norma at the Saint-Etienne Opera; and Chérubin in Montreal. In December 1997, during the France-Egypt Year, he was invited to the Cairo Opera for the production of Thaïs. He has subsequently led such operas as La clemenza di Tito, Rigoletto, Samson et Dalila, Carmen, Aida, and many symphonic concerts in France, Germany, United States, Egypt and Italy. In Italy, he has been appointed head of the Arturo Toscanini Symphony Orchestra in Parma: there, he prepared for the celebration of Verdi's Centenary (2001) in his capacity as Artistic and Music Director. After the great triumph in the Teatro alla Scala for the new version of Undine by Henze, he travelled to Prague for La Damnation de Faust; to Sevilla to conduct Les Contes d'Hoffmann; to Valencia for Berlioz's Requiem; was in Marseille for Les Pécheurs de Perles; and in Ljubljana, he performed works by Saint-Saens, Schumann, and Roussel. It was during this season that Patrick Fournillier inaugurated the Great Theatre of Saint-Etienne with Barbara Hendricks' recital and Hérodiade: one of the Opera of Saint-Etienne’s great successes. At the celebrations Verdi's centenary in Italy, he commemorated the composer's death with several performances: he gave a programme of Verdi's Unpublished Sacred Music in a World Premiere at Busseto, commemorating at the same time the death of Arturo Toscanini in January 2001; and he led Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Il trovatore at the Teatro Alighieri di Ravenna. In France, particularly in Saint-Etienne, he celebrated the great Italian composer by conducting Verdi’s most famous masterpieces Rigoletto and La Traviata.

The 2001/2 season took him to Oslo for Les dialogues des Carmelites; to Macau and Hong-Kong (Gounod's Messe de Sainte-Cecile); to Saint-Etienne for the Massenet Festival; to the Capitole in Toulouse (Massenet's Manon); to the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam (Lakmé); to Genoa (Le siege de Corinthe); to Nice (Don Quichotte); and also to Bratislava, London and Oslo for several symphonic concerts.

In recent seasons he conducted at the Teatro Regio di Torino (Don Quichotte and Carmen); Opéra des Flandres (Werther); and at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin (Lucia di Lammermoor); Oslo (Les dialogues des Carmelites), and Seattle (I pagliacci, Cavalleria rusticana). Increasingly in demand at the Zurich Opernhaus he has conducted Fanciulla del West and Faust. At the Vlaamse Opera he conducted Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (Dukas) and Les pecheurs de perles. At the end of last year he conducted Carmen in Oslo.

He conducted La sonnambula at the Teatro Filarmonica in Verona in January and in February was at the Palau de la Muisica in Valencia for Cyrano de Bergerac with Placido Domingo in the title role. He conducted Faust in Zurich and Carmen at the Deutsche Opera. and at the Semper Opera in Dresden with 'Damnation of Faust'. This year he conducted an accalaimed Cyrano de Bergerac at La Scala in Milano, again with Domingo. Last month he was at the Bayerische Staatsoper with 'Werther' and this month conducts the opening night of the Ravenna Festival with 'La Traviata'. Further ahead he will return to the US in 2010 for his debut at the Metropolitan Opera and at Washington Opera. Next year he conducts Cyrano at the Chatelet and Louise in Strasbourg.

June 2008