Opéra National du Rhin, France Honegger: Les Aventures du roi Pausole The huge cast tackles the „light muse" with fiery eagerness, playfulness and well-focused singing, thanks to Marc Trautmann, conducting the Mulhouse Orchestra, who manages to rid the performance of any conventional theatrical overweight. Opernwelt, Hamburg Acknowledgements to Marc Trautmann and the Orchestre de Mulhouse for having led to good end a musically perilous feat, and for having given zest to this often delicate music. Opéra International, Paris Although the operetta's three acts were performed without an interval, there were no longueurs in part due to the constant activity onstage & in part to the taut conducting of Marc Trautmann. Opera, London The Strasburgers have managed a musically brilliant feat. Marc Trautmann conducting the Mulhouse orchestra has unchained wit and esprit, in a both entertaining and weightless manner. Mannheimer Morgen The work is being resurrected from the treasure chest by the Strasbourg Opera. This called for some enlightenment and persuasion work from Marc Trautmann and the Mulhouse Orchestra. A thankful job they mastered with élan and overwhelming rhythmic character. Badisches Tagblatt, Freiburg [The dramatic directing] lacked the decent restraint, the playful coyness of the score, which only the orchestra, intelligently led by Marc Trautmann, developed in a well-focused form, and which was the sole soundful argument in favour of a kind of theatre that belongs to the past. Kultur, Freiburg Conductor Marc Trautmann leads the cast with a keen momentum. Le Soir, Brussels The Orchestre de Mulhouse under Marc Trautmann played with crisp ensemble, clearly enjoying the infectious spirit of the music, whose eclectic style veers with glorious freedom, but with Honegger's meticulous craftsmanship always in evidence, between blatant Offenbachian pastiche, the overtly sentimental, and the modernistic. Financial Times, London Marc Trautmann knows how to underline the colours of a refined orchestration. His principal achievement was to show that, handled with dignity, the lighter muses deserve the opera's stage. Les Echos, Paris Conducted by Marc Trautmann, the orchestra subtly details the thousand-and-one finesses crafted by the "honest craftsman" Honegger always claimed to be. L'Alsace, Strasbourg Marc Trautmann and a Mulhouse Orchestra in good shape have achieved this operetta's purpose. During the two-hour performance, Marc Trautmann knows how to give it life, humour, the required rhythm and seriousness without the least complacency. Le Moniteur, Paris Led by Marc Trautmann, the Orchestre de Mulhouse, in a very clear-cut chamber music-like style, plays with zest and colour. Libre Belgique, Brussels Everything is being served by the Orchestre de Mulhouse and Marc Trautmann with elegance and with wit. Rheinpfalz, Germany The Mulhouse Symphony Orchestra under Marc Trautmann plays Honegger's sparkling music with warm elegance. Basler Zeitung, Switzerland Portland Opera (OR), USA Reynaldo Hahn: The Merchant of Venice Conductor Marc Trautmann, ever aware of his singers, captured all the nuances of Hahn's score. As a result, I heard vocal qualities more clearly in Portland's acoustically inhospitable Civic Centre than I ever have in nearly thirty years of attending performances there. Opera News, New York Marc Trautmann obviously knows his Reynaldo Hahn. He conducts with fluidity, also with punch, this highly sensitive, refined and sophisticated music (its melody is easy, its flair is romantic), these naïve and immortal Mozartean arias, with an art of the articulation, of precision, of nuance, which is neither outdated, nor syrupy, nor conventional. Opéra International, Paris Conductor Marc Trautmann did the work of a goldsmith, rendering the original perfume of an opera that diverges more than somewhat from the Shakespearean drama ... The conductor's work should be underlined again. Marc Trautmann has given the opera all the brilliancy it deserves. La Lettre du Musicien, Paris Marc Trautmann was a poised, deft conductor. Opera, London Marc Trautmann led the orchestra with a sure hand. Seattle Day News Wellington Opera, New Zealand Bizet: The Pearlfishers Musical elements are admirable. The company is fortunate in getting Marc Trautmann to conduct. He led the Orchestra with fine discipline, getting beautiful cello, horn and woodwind playing, and made us aware of Bizet's highly accomplished way with the orchestra. Musically this is a splendid production, and it's the music that counts. Sunday Times, Wellington Pécs Symphony Orchestra, Hungary Debussy: Martyre de Saint-Sébastien (complete) Trautmann conducted Debussy's famous Martyre de Saint Sébastien. Trautmann really is a fine conductor, sensitive, of a refined musicality, more meditative and lyrical than stern and dramatic. For who enjoys Debussy's style, it was a feast of colours and flavours, each instant charged with emotion. The orchestra glittered with refined Debussyst colouring; the chorus also met with a great — and well-deserved — success. Muszika, Budapest Offenbach: La Périchole Théâtre d’Irigny, Lyon The good surprise comes from the pit where Marc Trautmann, who has delicately reorchestrated the score, conducts the musicians of the Lyon National Opera with inspiration. Le Progrès de Lyon Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites Portland Opera All the while, Poulenc's music - vibrantly conducted by Marc Trautmann - mixes somber strings with interwoven winds for a subtle lattice of gripping tension. Oregonian, Portland The entire ensemble of Portland Opera, under the direction of conductor Marc Trautmann and producer David Edwards, kept the staging of Poulenc's opera taut and focused, successfully combining the music with well-paced scenes to build the drama. Opera, London The work came across above all as extraordinarily beautiful. Marc Trautmann's understated, lyrical conducting and David Edwards's uncluttered, sensitive staging made Carmélites a particularly uplifting experience, more Gallic than verismo in flavor, less wrenching than in some productions. Opera News, New York Gabriel Pierné: Les Enfants à Bethléem Marseille Philharmonic Angelic, seraphic, celestial ? There are no adequate adjectives to describe this concert of the Sacred Music Festival of Marseille. It is hard to find words whose limits would be meaningless, when one must report an emotion that brought tears to many eyes. Les enfants à Béthléem, mysterium for narrator, soloists, children’s chorus and orchestra by Gabriel Pierné has, for most of us, come out of a shadow where it should not remain. A pure enchantment, both from the music and the interpretation. From the children’s chorus, and from the young soloists whose voices and impeccable singing deserve praise - it is true that conductor Marc Trautmann kept an attentionate eye to that ; he has found the exact pacing for that score, and succeeded it expressing its character. Midi Libre, Marseille Hebei Symphony Orchestra, China French tour, 2000 From the very first note, the HeBei Symphony Orchestra has seized the public and did not let go of it during the two hours of intense and palpable emotion the musicians delivered to the listeners. Marc Trautmann conducted his ensemble with mastery and ease, giving the tone to all his mucians, the complementarity of which seemed obvious. The hall resounded with a standing ovation that accompanied the orchestra’s exit, followed by several encores. Le Dauphiné libéré Menotti: The Telephone - Milhaud: Le Pauvre matelot Bordeaux National Opera The musicians [of the Bordeaux National Orchestra] as conducted by Marc Trautmann prove that chamber opera does not rhyme with second-class opera. Diapason, Paris The Orchestre National de Bordeaux, under the fiery baton of Marc Trautmann, occupies the left part of the stage, on a large staircase, highlighting each instrument. Opéra International, Paris Opéra de Marseille Xü ShuYa : La Neige en août (Snow in August) Opéra International, Paris Marc Trautmann’s rigorous and engaged rehearsal work as well as his interpretation have elevated the Marseille Opera Orchestra and Chorus – which was singing for the first time ever in Chinese – to an unheard-of high level. Trautmann had already conducted the opera’s world premiere in Taiwan the year before. Opera Magazine, London The conviction and force of Marc Trautmann’s conducting galvanized the participants so that our attention was held throughout.