Jean Périsson

A pupil of Jean Fournet, he won the first prize at the Besançon conducting competition in 1952.

He was assistant to Igor Markevitch at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and was chief conductor of the Strasbourg Radio Orchestra from 1955-56.

He was music director for the city of Nice from 1956-65, giving Wagner cycles (with artists from Bayreuth).

He was a permanent conductor at the Paris Opera from 1965-69 and led an early French production of Káťa Kabanová at the Salle Favart.

He later conducted and recorded Bizet’s Carmen with Central Opera Theatre of China in 1982.

Conductor Jean Périsson in rehearsal at the Saint Roch Church in Paris conducts Beethoven's Oratorio: Christ on the Mount of Olives