Synopsis
In his LES HUGUENOTS [1836] Giacomo Meyerbeer transposed one of the bloodiest massacres in European history to the opera stage. The attempt by French Catholics to murder all the country’s Protestants on St Bartholomew’s Day in 1572 remains one of most ghastly examples of religious atrocities. That LES HUGUENOTS went on to become one of Meyerbeer’s most famous operas has as much to do with his relentless approach to the exposition as with the dramatic subject matter. The opera depicts the unfolding of a catastrophe, from the fragile interdenominational peace and the vain attempts at mediation to the organisation of the crime in the famous “benediction of the swords” culminating in the indiscriminate slaughter of the Huguenots.In its linking of the fate of the two lovers Raoul and Valentine with the major historical event that was the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre, LES HUGUENOTS became the archetypal work of the new grand opéra sub-genre and one of the most influential operas in history.
Conductor: Michele Mariotti; Stage Director: David Alden; Set Design: Giles Cadle; Costume Design: Constance Hoffman; Light Design: Adam Silverman; Chorus Master: Raymond Hughes; Choreographer: Marcel Leemann
With Patrizia Ciofi, Derek Welton, Marc Barrard, Olesya Golovneva, Irene Roberts, Juan Diego Flórez, Ante Jerkunica et al.
Premiered on 13. November 2016
