THEexciting operain his three actsChristoph Willibald von Gluck in first world revival 250 years after its premiere it will be presented inAthens Concert HallherTuesday 14 and on Wednesday 15 February 2012 at 20.00 at night.
An international co-production starting fromOpera Househer journey on European stages, and inCovent Garden (Linbury Studio).
The operaThe Triumph of Clelia, it is bold and demanding for its time, written for the opening of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, it was abandoned and forgotten after a few performances, the 1763. Two hundred and fifty years later it is revived with an impressive production at the Concert Hall as part of the Metatropies Series.
A challenging 21st century show meets the great music of the 18th century, with two dynamic signatures, that promise a spectacle of freshness and inspiration: by Nigel Lowry in the direction and chief musician Giorgos Petros in the direction of Camerata, Orchestra of Friends of Music, with period instruments.
The artistic direction of the production is Giuseppe Sigismonti de Risio. The scenery is by Nigel Lowry, the costumes and the realization of the scenography by Paris Mexi, the lighting by Giorgos Tellos and the musical preparation by Mata Katsoulis and Markellos Chrysikopoulos.
Gluck's thrilling opera in three acts, to a libretto by Pietro Metastazio, is a co-production of "Et in Arcadia ego" and the Athens Concert Hall and is presented in Athens with the support of the European Union, within the Culture program and in collaboration with "Tuttiall' Opera - TAO" and The City of London Sinfonia. She will continue her journey at Linbury Studio in Covent Garden, in June 2012 and on other European stages with an excellent cast of Greek and foreign singers specializing in 18th century music. The work is presented through a new critical edition from the Bologna manuscript, which was made specifically for the needs of this production.
The title role is performed by the French soprano Hélène Lecour (Hélène LeCorre), the mezzo-soprano Mary Ellen Nezi as Horatio, the Turkish soprano Burtsou Ouyar in Larissa(Burcu Uyar), the mezzo-soprano Irene Karagianni as Tarquinio, Porsinna by tenor Vassilis Kavaias and Mannio by Artemis Bogri (mezzo).
THETriumph of Clelia, a war adventure inspired by the legendary pages of Roman history, it has everything: the mythical art of castrati, the boundless virtuosity of bel canto, the baroque drama, the novelties of the galante style. Gluck, for the glamorous opening of the Teatro Comunale, he collaborates with Pietro Metastazio, one of the most important librettists/poets of all time, he writes demanding music, music for virtuoso soloists and pushes its protagonists to the limits of their vocal and dramatic endurance.
The Camerata-Orchestra of the Friends of Music made the first world recording of the work in the summer of 2011, under the musical direction of Giuseppe Sigismondi de Risio for the German company MDG. The album will be released internationally in March 2012 while it will be available on the days of the Megaros performances.
Fascinating and poetic Nigel Lowry, challenging director, with extensive experience in modern and daring productions in the greatest theaters of Europe, proposes a particularly emotional and impressive reading of the work and with an aesthetic that creates the analog standards of our time to understand it: intrigue, diplomacy, corruption through ideology, fanaticism without ethics.
Ideal meeting of Lauri with ECHO KLASSIC awardee Giorgos Petrou, a highly sensitive musician specializing in the repertoire of this era, with the participation of the now internationally renowned Camerata-Orchestra of the Friends of Music.
The occasion: The Teatro Comunale of Bologna wanted an impressive premiere. His impresario sought out Gluck who had already written 30 operas, he was famous on the stages of Europe and had begun to transform opera by adding more and more dramatic elements. Gluck, despite not having close ties to Bologna, accepted, but he preferred to use other librettos by Metastasius, suggested Olympiad, but the theater insisted on Clelia's Triumph. It had spectacular scenes that would show the technical excellence of the theater and an original text that would declare that the new stage was innovating.
The plot: The Roman noblewoman Clelia is captured by the Etruscan king Porcinna, who besieges Rome. Tarquinius, Roman officer, he fights by Porsinna's side, in the hope that he will win the throne of Rome and the love of Clelia. By deceit and machinations, deceives the Roman soldier Horatio, beloved of Clelia and provokes the fatal confrontation: Etruscans and Romans clash on the Tiber bridge. Clelia with her courage and high principles will save her city and Gluck will sign a hymn to female heroism and the triumph of love.
The show: 14 May 1763. The opera was a success, but it was not a triumph. The more anxious audience responded to some tracks, appreciate the new musical idiom, the rich and sophisticated orchestration, but conservative audiences wanted more conventional spectacles. The costumes were by Antonio Galli da Bibiena, of the architect who had also designed the theater and had become the envy of the other architects of the city, which had been organized to discredit the opera. Clelia was performed several times during that period with the theater always full. Gluck supervised the rehearsals of the first three performances, as stipulated in the contract and left town.
The sequel: Clelia was abandoned after the Bologna performances. Her directing requirements, her vocal difficulties, the fact that it was considered a work written for an occasion, they condemned her to obscurity. The 1904 a manuscript copy of her score was discovered in an Austrian monastery, but no one paid attention and it ended up in the archives of the Brussels Conservatory. From there he retrieved it 1963 Gianpietro Tidori and wanted to publish it for the 200 years of the Communal Theatre. He had an accident. The manuscript was finally published on 2008 from the publishing house Baerenreiter, in all of Gluck's.
The composition: THEGluck(1714-1787) set a drama of Metastasios to music (1698-1782) and made an opera that is at its core the voice, voice of masters, who sing a variety of impressive arias. Clelia's character is complex and multidimensional, sometimes heroic, sometimes scared, sometimes moody and sometimes silent, enables him to compose a nuanced musical dialogue and as in almost all of them 35 his operas, so to her, speaks to the public about responsibility, about the personal and moral transformations of man through the great historical events. He himself lived in an era of political and social instability, the American and French Revolutions, the napoleonic wars affected his writing and changed opera dramatically.
In Italian with Greek subtitles
by Lone Surfing
