Chez Medici: Florentine Baroque — The Origins of Opera at Versailles
About the Event
Gain new insight into the very beginnings of opera, in the fittingly luxurious setting of Versailles' Royal Opera. Raphaël Pichon conducts his Ensemble Pygmalion in extracts from the intermezzi composed for the Medici that evolved into opera as we know it.
Written as interludes between the acts of highly allegorical plays celebrating a nuptial pair, in the hands of the most gifted musicians of the era — Peri, Caccini, de Cavalieri — a new relationship emerged between text and music melodramma was born, seeking from the first the most effective and accurate expression of musical and emotional affects. Taking Peri's La Pellegrina as his model, Pichon has constructed six intermezzi, complete with intimate madrigals, dramatic scenes, and choral explosions for 30‐plus voices. A new musical world beckons.
Cast / Production
Marc Mauillon Apollo & Orfeo
Sophie Junker Amore
Luciana Mancini Venere & Dafne
TBA Plutone
Deborah Cachet, Zachary Wilder, Davy Cornillot Pastori
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon Conductor
