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Home , Alexandra Deshorties, Gaspare Spontini, La vestale (Mercadante), La vestale (Spontini), Paris Opera Awards, Peter Mattei

PRESS FILE

OPERA Alessandro de Marchi & Eric Lacascade

13, 15, 17, 20, 22 October 2015 20:00 25 October 2015 15:00

CIRQUE ROYAL / KONINKLIJK CIRCUS

Opéra en trois actes, version française Livret de Victor-Joseph Etienne de Jouy Premiere Salle Montsansier, , 15/12/1807

NEW PRODUCTION

I – INTRODUCTION WITH BIOGRAPHIES

THE FLAMES OF THE VESTAL ALTAR SET THE SCORE ALIGHT Since La Vestale, not a note of music has been written that wasn’t stolen from my scores!’ Gaspare Spontini was himself aware of how innovative and influential his score was. He turned in a new direction by conceiving the whole score on the basis of a compelling dramatic conception involving naturalistic effects, orchestration, and musical form, thereby pointing the way for such opera as Rossini, Wagner, Berlioz, and Meyerbeer. As a it was ahead of its time and was full of spectacular scenes showing a Vestal Virgin’s forbidden love for a Roman general; it made Spontini the most important of the Napoleonic period. Here directing his first opera, the French stage director Éric Lacascade focuses on a highly topical subject: ‘More than passionate love, what is at stake in this opera is the liberation of a woman who frees herself from the power of religious authority.’

COMPOSER & WORK

Born in 1774 in , Gaspare Spontini (1774-1851) imposed a new style to French music, mixing his Neapolitan inspiration to the genre of French lyric tragedy and thus creating what may be termed as Grand Historic Opera. The Italian composer, who became French in 1817, began a brilliant career in Rome and Venice after his studies at the Royal Conservatory of . His shady and difficult character led to his departure from Italy in 1803, and to the new French empire to which he was attracted. The Empress Josephine appointed him composer to the court two years later. Written on a by Etienne de Jouy, La Vestale was created in Paris in 1807. The work tries to answer the new aesthetic principles laid down by , which were heavily inspired by ancient Rome. The creation of this “opera of the decade”, according to the Institute of at the time, caused a sensation and was followed by more than two hundred performances. The musician's career experienced then a runaway success that did not stop at the fall of the Napoleonic Empire. He left France for in 1820, and was appointed Director General of Music by the King of Prussia. Reinstalled in Italy in 1842, he died in his hometown ten years later.

La Vestale, a veritable bridge between Baroque and , is a work that deserves to be rediscovered. If Gluck’s influence is felt from the first notes of the overture, as well as in the magnificent choirs or the grand recitatives, Spontini’s originality and refinement of orchestration carry numerous innovations that many a contemporary or successor borrowed from him. Berlioz, to name but him, will often hold Spontini’s opera up as an example, and Wagner will go on to conduct it in 1844. The story is set against the backdrop of a Roman tragedy. The young general Licinius is in love with Julia, a young priestess from the temple of Vesta. While they swear fidelity to each other, the sacred fire placed under Julia’s surveillance goes out. She is arrested, and as she refuses to denounce her lover, she is condemned to be burned alive. Julia will be saved by the power of love. A divine storm surrounds the temple and allows Licinius to pull Julia from her grave. The sacred fire is restored.

Spontini’s opera was created in in 1810 and performed regularly until 1937, when it finally disappeared from ’s stage as well as from the other European lyrical stages. In 1954, brought the role back into fashion, in a memorable production by one Visconti. But it will take more than fifty years to be able to listen to it at La Monnaie.

ARTISTIC TEAM

The Italian conductor Alessandro de Marchi whom we have not had the opportunity to hear for several seasons, will lead the La Monnaie for this new production which will be presented at the Cirque Royal in October 2015. We will meet again the La Monnaie Chorus which will be prepared by their conductor Martino Faggiani and completed by the MM Academy prepared by Benoît Giaux.

The talent of Alessandro de Marchi for baroque repertoire in particular, makes an interpreter of choice for the Spontini masterpiece. He became indeed a passionate advocate of the less known works, such as Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto and Graun’s Cesare e Cleopatra that he conducted at the Berlin Staatsoper, Hasse’s Cleofide conducted at Dresden, Vivaldi’s Orlando Paladin, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Pergolesi’s Olimpiade at the Naples Teatro San Carlo, at Innsbruck and at the Festival Pergolesi at Lesi. He is associated with the of Handel as well as Rossini and conducted La Cenerentola, L’Italiana in Algeri and Demetrio e Polibio at Hamburg, Dresden and Berlin; as well as Alcina, Teseo, Orlando and Rinaldo at Lyon, Berlin, Essen and for the Handel Festival at Halle. He is also a great Mozart interpreter that the audience at La Monnaie were able to appreciate in Cosi fan tutte and Le Nozze di Figaro. He has recently conducted Almira (Handel) at the Staatsoper in Hamburg and at the Festwochen der Alten Musik in Innsbruck, where he was artistic director; di seta (Rossini) at the Teatro La Fenice and at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; L’Elisir d’amore (Donizetti) at Hamburg; Giulio Cesare (Handel) at the Semperoper in Dresden and at the Teatro Regio in Turin; Juditha Triumphans (Vivaldi) at the Teatro La Fenice; La Stellidaura vendicante (Provenzale) with his ensemble Academia Montis Regalis, at the Theater an der Wien and for his debuts at the Wigmore Hall in London. His discography includes Bellini’s La Sonnambula with Cecilia Bartoli and Juan Diego Flórez (Decca); Vivaldi’s Olimpiade, Telemann’s La stellidaura vendicante, Flavius Bertaridus and Handel’s Carmelite Vespers plus Caldara (Sony/harmonia mundi); Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Hyperion); Vivaldi’s Orlando finto pazzo (Naïve) and on DVD Monteverdi L’Incoronazione di Poppea (EuroArts) and Donizetti L’Elisir d’Amore (Dynamic).

The directing has been entrusted to the Frenchman Éric Lacascade and created in 2013 at the Champs- Elysées Theatre in Paris. Coming from the world of theatre, the French director Éric Lacascade takes here his first steps into opera. He offers a version as detached from any historicism as from all contemporary transposition. The scenic apparatus is simple: a naked set burnt by the sun or immersed in half-light, a few pieces of furniture. Eric Lacascade utilises a certain stylisation in the setting and the play of the singers in order to bring out the psychological traits of the characters, while following as closely as possible Spontini’s music. He sees in Spontini’s work a timeless drama and defines thus the main persona: “Julia, woman victim, woman warrior, rebellious woman, revealed to herself by passionate love. The power of this passion, the power of this inflamed woman, reaches well beyond any particular epoch. Submitted to an ancestral ritual in which the woman is at the service of God and man, she dares to choose the uniqueness of her love against the divine law, against the law of the city.” He adds that “the presence of the people, people of vestals, of priests, of warriors, of citizens, the colourful and mixed crowd always on the brink of explosion, contributes to the power of the work.”

Born in Lille, Éric Lacascade, studied law, whilst training for theatre professions at the Prato, the alternative theatre of Lille. He was appointed head of Normandy National Dramatic Centre in 1997 with Guy Alloucherie, with whom he founded his company the Ballatum Théâtre and who rapidly quit the association. While working at the Drama Centre, he was invited to work at the Paris Odéon - Chekhov’s Ivanov in 1999 and Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler with Isabelle Huppert in 2004 – and has worked several times at the Avignon Festival: a Chekhov Trilogy - Ivanov, La Mouette and Cercle de Famille pour Trois sœurs – in the same place with the same actors in 2000; Platonov in La Cour d’Honneur in 2002 and re-programmed the following year; Maxime Gorki’s Barbares in 2006. His work has been the subject of important tours in France and abroad. Alongside his major theatrical forms, Eric Lacascade explored other more experimental tracks, like musicals, with actress Norah Krief or on the initiative of Daria Lippi, the project Pour Penthésilée, a solo show. He left the Caen Comédie in 2007 and continued to work as part of the Cie Lacascade. Chekhov’s Uncle Vania was presented as part of the Vilnius 2009, European Capital of Culture. In 2010, it was Maxime Gorki’s Les Estivants at the Brittany Théâtre National, and Moliere’s Tartuffe in 2011. Since 2013, he has been the associate artist at the National Theatre of Brittany and is the pedagogical head of its school – education and transmission are part and parcel of his theatre work.

Martino Faggiani was born in Rome, where he studied piano, harpsichord and composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory. He has been assistant to Norbert Balatsch at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia since 1992, working on all the institution’s productions and on several occasions led performances of concerts. He has worked there with conductors such as , Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rudolf Barshai, Fabio Biondi, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Enrique Mazzola, Kent Nagano, Daniel Oren, Georges Prêtre, Claudio Scimone, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Vladimir Spivakov. He was also chorus master of the Santa Cecilia Young Chorus. Since 2000 he has been chorus master of the choir of the Teatro Regio in Parma. Martino Faggiani is regularly invited as a guest conductor. He prepared the La Monnaie Choir for (Bellini), , Macbeth, la Messa da Requiem, and La Traviata (Verdi), La Bohème and Manon Lescaut (Puccini), Cendrillon and Don Quichotte (Massenet), Les Huguenots (Meyerbeer), (Rossini), Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti), a concert version of Roméo and Juliette (Gounod), Pelléas and Mélisande (Debussy), Così fan tutte (Mozart), La Clemenza di Tito (Mozart), Jenůfa (Janáček), Rigoletto (Verdi), Orphée and Eurydice (Gluck/Berlioz), the concert version of Guillaume Tell (Rossini), as well as different concerts such as War Requiem (Britten). In 2015-2016, he has prepared the choir for Daphne (Strauss), Fierrabras (Schubert), Un Ballo in maschera (Verdi), Rachmaninov Troïka as well as other diverse concerts. In 2015-2016, he participate in productions of L’Elisir d’amore (Donizetti), La Vestale (Spontini), Demon (Rubinstein), Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea), Béatrice et Bénédict (Berlioz) and Frankenstein (Grey), as well as La Grande messe des morts (§Berlioz).

CAST

The cast reunites artists that are regularly invited to the Brussels stage, Yann Beuron, Sylvie Brunet- Grupposo, Julien Dran and Jean Teitgen. For her debut at La Monnaie, the Canadian French Alexandra Deshorties interprets the role of Julia. The French Yann Beuron who performed in 2014 the role of the elder sister’s husband in Philippe Boesmans’s , interprets for the first time the role of Licinius, Vestale’s lover. The French mezzo- soprano of Sicilian origin Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo incarnates the Grande Vestale. She impressed the public and the critics with her debuts in the role of Azucena (Il Trovatore) in 2012 and in the Queen Gertrude (Hamlet, Verdi) in 2014. In the role of Cinna, we meet again the young French tenor Julien Dran, discovered at La Monnaie in the character of Edmondo in Manon Lescaut (Puccini) in 2013, and, in the role of Souverain Pontife, the French Jean Teitgen, who has regularly appeared on our stage.

The soprano Alexandra Deshorties studied at the Marseille National Conservatory before continuing her education at the Manhattan School of Music. She won first prize (Leonie Rysanek Award) at the George London Foundation Auditions. A graduate of the ’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, she made her debut at the Metropolitan in the role of High Priestess (, Verdi) which was followed by the roles of Mozart, Elettra (), Fiordiligi (Cosí fan tutte), the First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Donna Anna (), and the Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro). She regularly performs as Echo (, Strauss), Musetta (La Bohème, Puccini), and Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Britten). Among her roles of predilection, are Fiordiligi at the San Francisco, Seattle and Cincinnati Operas, at the Aix- en-Provence Festival, at the Gran Teatre del in Barcelona, at the Coruña Festival, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New-York; Donna Anna at the Los Angeles Opera, at the Cincinnati Opera, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (at the Gstaad Festival; Violetta (La Traviata, Verdi) at the Arizona Opera, and Elettra at the Houston Grand Opera. She made her debuts in Cleopatra (Guilio Cesare) at the Seattle Opera, and interpreted the title role of at the Portland Opera Repertory Theatre. Recently she has sung Elisabetta (Roberto Devereaux) at the , Desdemona (Otello) at the Dallas Opera, Peter Mattei’s The Countess, Luleå Festival (Sweden), the title role of Medea at the Glimmerglass Opera and Junone (La Calisto) at the Cincinnati Opera. Among her recent and future engagements, are Matilde (Guillaume Tell) at the Geneva Grand Theatre and Donna Anna at the Norske Opera.

The French tenor Yann Beuron performed in 2014 the role of the elder daughter’s husband in Philippe Boesmans, Au monde. He made his debuts at La Monnaie in the roles of Pastori and Spiriti (L’Orfeo, Monteverdi), which was followed by Don Ramiro and the title role of Pelléas and Mélisande. He performs for the first time Licinius, Vestale’s lover. After his studies in sociology, Yann Beuron studied singing at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, and was unanimously awarded first prize in 1996. He made his debuts at Rhin Opera in Strasbourg in the role of Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart) and at the Paris National Opera in Hippolyte and Aricie (Rameau). He has performed the roles of Mozart, such as, Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Idamante (Idomeneo) and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), but also in Gonzalve (L’Heure espagnole, Ravel), Pylade (Iphigénie en Tauride, Gluck), Wilhelm Meister (Mignon) and Laërte (Hamlet) Thomas, Fenton (Falstaff, Verdi), Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola, Rossini), Paris (La Belle Hélène, Offenbach) and the Chevalier de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites, Poulenc). Recently he has sung the Prince Philippe (Yvonne, Princesse de Bourgogne, Philippe Boesmans) in Paris, Idamante at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and at the Mozart Festwochen in Salzburg, the title role of La Clemenza di Tito (Mozart) at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Pylade au Teatro Real and at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam, le Chevalier de la Force at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the title role of Pelléas and Mélisande (Debussy) at the Teatro Real and at the Liceu Barcelona, as well as Evandre and Admète (Alceste, Gluck) at the Paris National Opera. His discography has recently been enriched by the third collection of songs by Fauré and the Berlioz’s Enfance du Christ under the baton of . His recent and up and coming engagements include, London, in Chevalier de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites), Stuttgart (L'Heure Espagnole) and at the Paris Comic Opera (Au Monde).

The Grande Vestale will be performed by the French mezzo-soprano of Sicilian origin Sylvie Brunet- Grupposo. She impressed the public of La Monnaie and the critics in her debuts in the roles of Azucena (Il Trovatore) in 2012 and as Queen Gertrude (Hamlet, Verdi) in 2014. This specialist of mezzo-soprano dramatic roles, has notably performed at la Scala in for the title role of Iphigénie en Tauride (Gluck), at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris for the title role of Carmen (Bizet), at the Teatro Regio in Turin, at the Zurich Opera, at Bonn, at Toronto and for the opening of the Athens Festival. She was Dalila (Samson and Dalila, Saint-Saëns) at Seville, Bonn and Bucarest; the first Prieure (Dialogues des Carmélites, Poulenc) at the Munich Staatsoper and at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse; Ottavia (L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Monteverdi) in Vienna and Aix-en-Provence. Her repertoire includes the Verdi roles of Ulrica (Un Ballo in maschera), Frederica (), Eboli (Don Carlos), but also Marguerite (, Berlioz), Cassandre (Les Troyens, Berlioz), Venus (Tannhäuser, Wagner), Herodias (Salome, Strauss), Jocaste (Œdipus Rex, Stravinsky) and Sélika (L’Africaine, Meyerbeer). Recently she has sung Madame de Croissy (Dialogues des Carmélites) at the Munich Staatsoper. The Association for the Radiance, unanimously awarded her its first great prize; rewarding the artist for her portrayal of the great mezzo-soprano roles in the French repertoire. Her recent and future projects include notably Geneviève (Pelleas and Melisande) at the Lyon Opera, La Nourrice (Ariane and Barbe-bleue) at the Strasbourg opera.

In the character of Cinna, we will meet again the French tenor Julien Dran, discovered at La Monnaie in the role of Edmondo (Manon Lescaut, Puccini) in 2013 and Ruodi (Guillaume Tell, Rossini) in 2014. Born in Bordeaux, Julien Dran studied trumpet and singing at the Conservatory in his hometown and was a resident at the Marseille Centre National Artistes Lyriques during the season 2007-2008. He sang in The king David (Honegger) at the Radio France Festival and in Paris (Salle Pleyel), followed by the international singing contest in Clermont-Ferrand, he incarnated Ferrando (Così fan tutte, Mozart), and Tebaldo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Bellini). His recent and future projects include the Verdi roles of Borsa (Rigoletto) at the Monte-Carlo Opera and at Aix-en-Provence and Fenton (Falstaff) at Metz; as well as Mozart roles that include Conte Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) at Bordeaux and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at the Centre lyrique in Auvergne ; Lindoro (L’Italiana in Algeri, Rossini) and Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles, Bizet) at Avignon ; as well as Roderigo (Otello, Verdi) at the Chorégies d’Orange. He has recently received the first prize as “ Best Singer” at the Paris Opera Awards.

The French Bass Jean Teitgen incarnates Souverain Pontife. Recently present in the concert version of William Tell for his debuts in the role of Melcthal, he has also incarnated Gubetta in 2013 in the new production of Lucrezia Borgia and previously participated in Pelléas and Mélisande (Debussy), The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky) and Oedipe (Enescu). Jean Teitgen entered the Paris Conservatory after a Masters in Economic Science. He was soon invited to numerous theatres in France and in the rest of Europe. He has notably incarnated Ramfis (Aida, Verdi) at the Nice Opera; Pietro (Simon Boccanegra, Verdi), The King (The Love for Three Oranges, Prokofiev) and Abimélech (Samson and Dalila, Saint-Saëns) at the Geneva Grand Theatre ; De Verbois (Fortunio, Messager) and Selva (La Muette de Portici, Auber) at the Paris Comic Opera ; Fasolt (Das Rheingold, Wagner) in Dublin. Recently he has sung the roles of Basilio in Tours and Nourabad (Les Pêcheurs de perles, Bizet) in Strasbourg, Béthune (I Vespri Siciliani, Verdi) at Covent Garden, Jupiter (Castor and Pollux, Rameau) at the Champs- Élysées Theatre in Paris, as well as Frère Laurent (Roméo and Juliette, Gounod) at Monte-Carlo. His recent and future engagements include the roles of Leporello (Don Giovanni) at Bergen and Zuniga (Carmen) at Orange.

Text by Isabelle Pouget

II – GENERAL INFORMATION

Conductor - ALESSANDRO DE MARCHI Director - ERIC LACASCADE Set design - EMMANUEL CLOLUS Costumes - MARGUERITE BORDAT Lighting - PHILIPPE BERTHOME Dramaturgy - DARIA LIPPI Chorus master - MARTINO FAGGIANI Chorus master MM Academy - BENOIT GIAUX

Licinius - YANN BEURON Cinna - JULIEN DRAN Le Souverain Pontife - JEAN TEITGEN Julia - ALEXANDRA DESHORTIES La Grande Vestale - SYLVIE BRUNET-GRUPPOSO

LA MONNAIE SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA & CHORUS MM ACADEMY

PERFORMANCES 13, 15, 17, 20, 22 October 2015 20:00 25 October 2015 15:00

CIRQUE ROYAL / KONINKLIJK CIRCUS

CO-PRODUCTION La Monnaie / De Munt, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris) WITH THE SUPPORT OF Swift