The entertainment world mourns Jorge Lavelli. The Franco-Argentinian director, former director of the national theater of La Colline, died in Paris on the night of Sunday to Monday, at the age of 90, announced the Argentine embassy in France, confirming a news from the Argentinian daily Clarin.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1932, Jorge Lavelli came to Paris, as a scholarship holder from his country’s National Arts Fund, to follow the courses of Charles Dullin and Jacques Lecoq. In 1963, he established himself in France with his production of Marriage by Witold Gombrowicz, which won him the Grand Prix for directing at the National Competition for Young Companies.
From Ionesco to Mozart
Naturalized French in 1977, he took charge of La Colline – one of the six French national theaters dedicated to contemporary writing – from its foundation in Paris in 1987 until 1996.
The creation of the Western playwrights of his time, from Copi to Bond, including Eugène Ionesco, Fernando Arrabal, Lars Noren, Pierre Bourgeade and Serge Rezvani, occupied a large place in his career as a director. He also created memorable productions of plays from the dramatic and lyrical repertoires. In 2014, for example, he directed Mozart’s opera Idomeneo, King of Crete at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. “We remember him on this day and pay tribute to him,” reacted this Argentine cultural establishment on the social network X.