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When Ovid's âMetamorphosesâ meet Vivaldi's music: conceived and directed by Barrie Kosky, an effervescent show presented at the 2025 Salzburg Festival. With Cecilia Bartoli, Lea Desandre, Nadezhda Karyazina, and Philippe Jaroussky, as well as actress Angela Winkler in the spoken role of Orpheus.
As Christof Loy put it: CosĂŹ fan tutte invites us to embrace the complexity of life and face the future with heads held high. In his staging of the version he abridged with Joana Mallwitz for the Salzburg Festival 2020 the focus is wholly on the figures and the subtle choreography of their emotional states â in a space that like a magnifying glass exposes the intricate mechanisms between the characters. In this way the production leads the protagonists and the audience to experience the âserene calmâ that can perhaps indeed cure our own âdistempersâ.
After the fall of Troy, King Idomeneo can finally think about returning to his homeland of Crete. During his long absence, his son Idamantes took care of the affairs of government and the Troyan prisoners of war, including Ilia, the daughter of King Priam. In order to get out alive from the storm that prevents him from landing in Crete, he promises to sacrifice the first living creature he encounters on his home soil to the sea god Poseidon. Unfortunately, this is his son who rushes to greet him. By sacrificing her life for Idamante's, whom she loves and who reciprocates her love, Ilia manages to appease Poseidon and release Idomeneo from his fateful oath. Production of the Grand Theatre de Geneve, 2024.
A ruthless dictator falls in love with a sexy woman. Together, they get rid of every obstacle in their way: his wife, her former lover, and also the voice of reason. Everything is sacrificed to passion, in this tale where evil triumphs, virtue and reason are humiliated, and nothing corresponds to our moral principles. Jan Lauwers, the director and choreographer, sets L'incoronazione di Poppea in a way congenial to his means: a visual artist, he translated the emotions expressed by Monteverdiâs music into dancing and visual images. The result was mixed; the general impression was one of many ideas, seemingly not fully developed or analysed. The stage was constantly cluttered with moving bodies, or tableau vivants, leaving a sense of confusion, and distracting from the music.
The Pygmalion Ensemble, led by conductor and countertenor Raphaël Pichon, is renowned for its refined sound on period instruments. Together with vocal stars Sabine Devieilhe, Lea Desandre, Johannes Martin KrÀnzle, Julian Prégardien, and Daniel Behle, the ensemble delves into rarely performed works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
When, in 1733, Voltaire, the most brilliant mind of his day, collaborates with Rameau, its greatest composer, in undertaking an ambitious reform of operatic practice, the result is the biblical opera Samson. But the libretto is condemned and the score lost â possibly reworked here and there in later compositions. Claus Guth and RaphaĂ«l Pichon, haunted by this interesting project that had turned into one of the most intriguing failures in operatic history, have tried, not to recreate the letter, but to revive the spirit: to marry a strong, noble libretto with the most eloquent music.
In October 1733, the audience at the AcadĂ©mie Royale de Musique witnessed the birth of a revolutionary work: Hippolyte et Aricie. With its inventiveness and musical richness, Rameauâs opera marks a break in the history of French music. A similarly revolutionary duo â Jeanne Candel and RaphaĂ«l Pichon â get to grips with this work for the OpĂ©ra Comique.
Amour, the messenger of the gods, tells Orpheus that he may descend to the underworld and return with Eurydice. His singing has the power to appease the Furies and animate the blessed Shadows. Yet, his voice cannot reassure Eurydice who despairs of the feigned indifference of Orpheus, put to the test by Jupiter. RaphaĂ«l Pichon conducts the opera of operas and AurĂ©lien Bory displays the giddiness of the mental and supernatural spaces traveled by Orpheus and beyond. Marianne Crebassa plays a new breeches role with HĂ©lĂšne Guilmette (HĂ©lĂšne in Le Timbre dâargent) and Lea Desandre (the title role in Alcione).
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This Salzburg Festival production of Le nozze di Figaro (2020) offers a radical reinterpretation of Mozart's opera, directed by Martin KuĆĄej, who continues his exploration of Mozartâs works following Don Giovanni (2002) and La clemenza di Tito (2003). The turbulent comedy, laden with erotic entanglements, exposes themes of patriarchal dependency, sexual exploitation, betrayal, and emotional emptiness. French conductor RaphaĂ«l Pichon, renowned for historically informed performances, conducts his first opera at Salzburg after his debut at the festival in 2018.
In celebration of Monteverdiâs 450th birthday in 2017, Paul Agnewâan expert in the Italian composerâs Ćuvreâdirects LâOrfeo. This founding masterpiece of lyric opera is brought to life in elegant simplicity through the performances of Cyril Auvityâs Orpheus and Les Arts Florissants, with costumes designed by Alain Blanchot.
The programme features arias from Vivaldiâs operas and oratorios, as well as two of his cello concertos, performed by cellists Nicolas Altstaedt and Bruno Philippe. The young Franco-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre performs on the worldâs leading concert and opera stages and won the Opus Klassik award for Singer of the Year in 2022.
The Marriage of Figaro is one of the most emblematic operas in the repertoire. Brahms spoke of it as a âmiracleâ and the Countess' complaint still resonates today as one of the most heartbreaking musical pages. It was by resuming Beaumarchais' comedy, which caused a scandal in Parisian society, that Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte began their first collaboration. The play was banned by Joseph II in 1785 at the Vienna Theater. Is it because it exposed too much to the forefront the contradictions of an already faltering regime, ready to collapse with the French Revolution? Netia Jones preserves the very essence of Beaumarchais' play by questioning human relationships with humor but not without mischief, in a production which confuses reality and fiction to the point of asking, like the Count: "Are we playing a comedy?" »
co-production with the Teatro Real (Madrid).
Offenbachâs mockery of bourgeois ideals, the sublimity of music and the institution of marriage ensures that the moralistic sermonizing of âPublic Opinionâ falls on deaf ears. The mysterious figure of John Styx tells the story of behind-the-times Orpheus and his hacked-off Eurydice, of gods and goddesses seeking diversion, jaded with humdrum life in Olympus. He tells of the rebellion in the pantheon, which Jupiter adeptly averts by promising an amusement for his entourage. Burning with curiosity to see the beauteous captive and the contest between Jupiter and Pluto for Eurydiceâs favour, the illustrious company embarks on an infernal ride to the underworld that culminates in what is surely the most wellknown can-can in the history of music. And what of Eurydice? She ends up putting a spoke in everyoneâs wheelâŠ
Mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and lutenist Thomas Dunford perform Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, and Handel in this musical exploration of the Renaissance in the Lombard city.
