Alain Lombard

Alain Lombard stands among the foremost French conductors of the later twentieth century, with a distinguished career encompassing both operatic and symphonic leadership. His interpretive strengths lie especially in French opera, above all Bizet’s Carmen, Gounod’s Faust and Roméo et Juliette, Delibes’ Lakmé, and Massenet’s Werther, though he has also earned recognition for his readings of Puccini and Verdi as well as for orchestral scores by Berlioz, Debussy, and Ravel. Beyond these core interests, his repertoire extends substantially into Prokofiev, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and additional composers. Since the 1960s he has accumulated an extensive discography on labels such as EMI, Elektra, Erato, Forlane, and Valois.

Born in Paris on October 4, 1940, Lombard revealed exceptional early talent. After training at the Paris Conservatory, he secured his initial professional engagement before turning twenty-one, becoming assistant conductor at the Lyons Opera in 1961. He advanced quickly to principal conductor of that company yet left in 1965. The next year brought dual milestones: victory in the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition in Athens and appointment as conductor of the Greater Miami Symphony Orchestra. His American profile had already risen through a 1963 New York debut with the American Opera Society, where he directed a widely acclaimed performance of Massenet’s Hérodiade.

He subsequently worked as assistant to Leonard Bernstein and made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1967 conducting Gounod’s Faust. Between 1974 and 1980 he directed the Opéra du Rhin, whose activities centered in Strasbourg but also reached Colmar and Mulhouse. By 1980 he had established himself as a prominent figure on both operatic and concert platforms. Throughout the following decade he accumulated further major appointments: music director of the Opéra National de Paris from 1981 to 1983, the same post at the Paris-based Opéra-Comique in 1983, and in 1988 the combined leadership of the Bordeaux Opéra and the Bordeaux Aquitaine Orchestra. In 1990 he assumed the directorship of the Bordeaux Grand Théâtre.

Lombard maintained an active recording schedule, particularly during the 1990s and early twenty-first century. Among the releases were Lakmé in 1990 for EMI, the Mahler Fifth Symphony with the Bordeaux Aquitaine Orchestra in 1998 for Forlane, and multiple versions of Carmen, including a 2004 TDK DVD documenting the Franco Zeffirelli production at Verona.