Valer Barna-Sabadus

Live broadcast of the opera performance held on November 10, 2012 at the Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy, performed by five world-class countertenors.

On his military campaign abroad, an eccentric king is more concerned with conquering women than land. He always gets his way, until one day he falls for his brother’s secret lover. Xerxes’ tactics, which he changes as often as his opulent costumes, allow his opponents little time to rest. This results in a ‘baroque Muppet Show,’ as the celebrated Norwegian director Stefan Herheim describes his spectacular stage production. After a bewildering series of games of love and intrigue, Handel’s opera ends with the insight that life is a theatre in which one cannot always choose one’s own role.

Elena at the prestigious Aix-en-Provence Festival: Cavalli's opera staged for the first time in 350 years!

Francesco Cavalli's incandescent opera, where tragedy rubs shoulders with comedy, and burlesque alternates with deep emotion. Max Emanuel Cenčić directs a lively production, drawing on the codes of commedia dell'arte. This game of love and chance combines passion, betrayal, and power struggles. The countertenor takes on the title role, while Leonardo García Alarcón conducts the Cappella Mediterranea.

When Jephthah, a biblical parable adapted from the Book of Judges, begins, the people of Israel are under the yoke of neighbouring nations which pillage and oppress them. Jephthah, destined to become their saviour, has grown up in the desert until becoming a powerful military leader. On leaving for battle, he swears to the god Jehovah that he will sacrifice the first person he meets on his way home. Alas, as he returns victorious, it is Iphis, his only daughter, who comes to meet him… Claus Guth directs this oratorio in which grief‑stricken voices interweave as they confront an apocalyptic situation.