La Vestale - La Monnaie (2015) - La Vestale - La Monnaie (2015)

Description

New production
Co-production La Monnaie / De Munt, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées

Venue: Cirque Royal
Due to the renovation of the theatre, most of the season will be played "extra muros".

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 opera 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 composers as Rossini, Wagner, Berlioz, and Meyerbeer. As a grand opera 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 composer 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.’

More information is available on the opera house's official website.