Their Master’s Voice - Versailles Opera house (2024) - Their Master’s Voice - Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles (2024)

Description

Staged concert version.

Opera arias by Handel, Vivaldi and Porpora.
Opera which is part of the Bartoli Festival.

"From the heroes of Metastasis embodied by the castrati to the innumerable transvestite roles with which the romantic repertoire abounds, we can say that in opera, gender is a fluid notion. In the middle of the 18th century, no one was surprised that kings and gods are embodied by voices with evanescent sonorities, nor that, later, the fiery Cherub of the Marriage of Figaro is expressed thanks to the shimmering colors of the timbre of a mezzo-soprano.
Their Master's Voice is a concept born of a shared desire: that of two artists who esteem each other, John Malkovich, the unforgettable Valmont of Dangerous Liaisons by Stephen Frears, and Cecilia Bartoli, an artist always in search of reinvention.
During this show, we will see the composer and master of music of the greatest voices of his time, Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), famous for his operas given in Naples, Venice, Vienna and London, confront his prestigious students, the castrati Farinelli and Caffarelli. Both theatrical narration and musical celebration, with the great airs for castrato of the Baroque era, this "duel of genres" will tell us more about the composer-pedagogue and his essential contribution to the glory of these singers with the voices of angels. Porpora, who was Handel's rival in London, provided the castrati with an anthology of extraordinary airs in which they could shine more than ever.
The Austrian director and director Michael Sturminger will be in charge of designing this tailor-made show, presented after Monte-Carlo at the Royal Opera of Versailles then during the Barocchissimo event at the Staatsoper in Vienna.

More information is available on the official website of the opera house.