Today : world première of 'Les Éclairs' by Philippe Hersant in Paris

Today, the Opéra Comique in Paris presents Les Éclairs, an opera composed by Philippe Hersant, with a libretto by Jean Echenoz after his own novel.

 ©Cathy-Bistour

It is the composer's third opera after Le Château des Carpathes (Montpellier, October 27, 1993) and Le Moine noir (Leipzig, May 6, 2006).

When he arrives in New York in 1884, Gregor is inhabited by his visions. He wants to develop the uses of electricity in a revolutionary way. But science interests him more than profit. Industrialists loot him and mislead his inventions. He will take refuge in the spectacle of lightning and the company of birds.(freely adapted from the Opéra Comique website)

The cast includes baritone Jean-Christophe Lanièce (Gregor), mezzo Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur (Ethel), tenor François Rougier (Norman), soprano Elsa Benoit (Betty), baritone André Heyboer (Edison) and baritone Jérôme Boutillier (Parker). Ariane Matiakh conducts the Aedes Chorus and the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Clément Hervieu-Léger directs.

The performance should last 1 hour and 45 minutes, no interval.

Today : world première of Lucia Ronchetti's 'Inferno' in Frankfurt

 

Today, the Oper Frankfurt presents the world première of Lucia Ronchetti's Inferno, an opera with a libretto by the composer based on Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia with an epilogue by Tiziano Scarpa.

 Lucia Ronchetti has already composed several works of music theatre, including Neumond (Mannheim, 2012), Mise en abyme (Dresden, 2015), Esame di mezzanotte (Mannheim, 2015), Rivale (Berlin, 2017) and Les aventures de Pinocchio (Rennes, 2019).

A man at rock bottom decides to search for the next world, journeying through Hell. (reproduced from the Oper Frankfurt website)

The cast includes actor Sebastian Kuschmann (Dante), mezzo Karolina Makula (Francesca), tenor Alexander Kravets (Ulisse) and bass Alfred Reiter (Lucifero). Tito Ceccherini conducts the Schumann String Quartet, the Opern- und Museumsorchester Frankfurt and a Vocal ensemble. Marcus Lobbes directs.

The performance should last about 1 hour and 45 minutes with no interval. The venue is the Bockenheimer Depot.