FIVE GOOD REASONS TO SEE LA CALISTO
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This summer, for the very first time, the music of Francesco Cavalli will resound in the courtyard of the Théâtre de l’Archevêché during eight performances. Don’t miss this exceptional event, with tickets available in all categories starting at €32! Here are five good reasons to book a ticket for this July:
1 - LAURANNE OLIVA, A RISING STAR IN THE WORLD OF OPERA
The title role in the opera will be sung by Lauranne Oliva, making her debut at the Festival d’Aix. The young soprano — triple prize-winner at the 2020 Nuits Lyriques de Marmande competition, winner of the 2023 Voix Nouvelles competition, and nominated as “revelation opera singer” at the 2024 Victoires de la Musique Classique — is in demand on stages across France and throughout the rest of Europe for leading Mozart and Baroque roles. Don’t miss the chance to hear her this summer in the magnificent role of Calisto!
2 - A BRAND-NEW ORCHESTRATION OF CAVALLI’S OPERA
Sébastien Daucé, director of the Ensemble Correspondances, has spent two years preparing a critical edition of the score of La Calisto specially adapted for the size of his ensemble and for the open-air stage of the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, in keeping with a common practice in Cavalli’s time. Come and discover this gem of Venetian opera in a dazzling new orchestration.
3 - THE MYTH OF CALISTO SET TO MUSIC BY THE MASTERS OF VENETIAN OPERA
The most performed composer in Europe in his day, Francesco Cavalli gradually fell into obscurity before experiencing a newly found popularity in the 1970s. After staging revivals of Elena and Erismena in 2013 and 2017, the Festival d’Aix presents this summer yet another work by Monteverdi’s most celebrated pupil. Based on an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Giovanni Faustini’s libretto recounts the transformation of the nymph Calisto into a bear and then a constellation, through a series of amorous and vengeful misadventures between gods and mortals.
4 - A TALE OF FEMALE EMANCIPATION INSPIRED BY LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES
Calisto — a victim of Jupiter’s desire, Juno’s wrath and Diana’s scorn — finds herself at the centre of the Olympian gods’ dangerous games of seduction. Stage director Jetske Mijnssen offers a bitter portrayal of romantic relationships, transposing Cavalli’s opera to the world of a cruel princely court where dangerous liaisons form. In Calisto’s final metamorphosis, she is granted the power to write her own destiny.
5 - AN EXCEPTIONAL CAST FOR AN OPERA AT THE THÉÂTRE DE L’ARCHEVÊCHÉ
A new generation of performers come together under the direction of Sébastien Daucé, in a true ensemble spirit. Alex Rosen, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Zachary Wilder, Dominic Sedgwick and Théo Imart will appear alongside Anna Bonitatibus and Giuseppina Bridelli: rising and established stars of the Baroque stage join forces this summer at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché.
