JEAN LACORNERIE

Jean Lacornerie was born, in 1963 in Strasbourg, where he studied and learnt music. On the occasion of a university work on Marivaux, he met Jacques Lasalle, who was then the director of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg (TNS). He became his assistant from 1987 to 1990 for ten productions. He started working as a director with the TNS students, with whom he created Artaban et Ataraxie, a fantasia about the classical tragedy written by Jacques Roubaud. In September 1990, he was appointed Secretary General of the Comédie Française at the age of 26 by Jacques Lassalle. He brought to a successful conclusion the opening of the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier where he directed, a year later, La Glycine, by Serge Rezvani (1993).

Jean Lacornerie founded the Ecuador Theatre Company in Lyon in 1992. He is particularly interested in contemporary writings. He directed Saint Georges chez les Brocchi,by Carlo Emilio Gadda (Théâtre National Populaire, Villeurbanne, 1993), Une idée à vendre, by Daniele Del Giudice (Villa Gillet, 1994), Eros et Priape, by Carlo Emilio Gadda (Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, 1995), Joséphine, une petite révolte dans le placard à balais, by Guy Walter (Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, 1997), Eva Péron, by Copi (Bonlieu Scène Nationale, Annecy, 1999), and Les Cyniques, by Anatoli Marienghof (Espace Malraux, Chambéry, 2001).

In 1994, he asked Bernard Yannotta to be the music director of the company and started exploring with him the musical theater- with (in residence at the Espace Malraux, Scène nationale de Chambéry) : The man who mistook his wife for a hat, by Michael Nyman, Trouble in Tahiti, by Leonard Bernstein, and Mahagony et Happy End, by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht.

He was also invited by the Spoleto Festival USA (Charleston S.C 1994) for La Trahison Orale, by Maurizio Kagel; by the Festival d'Ambronay for Samson, by Haendel, conducted by Ton Koopman (1999), and by the Opéra National de Lyon for Orfeo, by Rossi (2004).

In October 2002, he has been nominated director (with Etienne Paoli) of the Théâtre de la Renaissance (in Oullins Grand Lyon) witch they dedicated to all the forms that mix music and theatre - from chamber opera to musical. There he directed (for the first time in France) Of thee I sing, by George, Ira Gershwin and George Kauffmann, and Le rêve du général Moreau, by Klabund (in March 2004) with the Debussy Quartet.

He produced and directed in the Théâtre de la Renaissance for the first time in France two major works of the American period of Kurt Weill : One touch of Venus, (by Kurt Weill Sidney J Perelman and Ogden Nash) in 2006, and Lady in the dark (by Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin and Moss Hart) in 2008 with the orchestra of the National Opera House of  Lyon conducted by Scott Stroman.