Francesco Cavalli Ercole Amante opera to libretto by Francesco Buti. Directed 2019 by Valérie Lesort and Christian Hecq at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Stars Nahuel di Pierro (Ercole ) Anna Bonitatibus (Giuone), Giuseppa Bridelli (Deianira), Francesca Aspromonte (Iole), Kystian Adam (Hyllo), Eugénie Lefebvre (Pasithea/Clerica/Terza Grazia/Secondo Pianeta), Ray Chenez (Il Paggio), Giulia Semenzato (Venere/Bellezza/Cinzia), Luca Tittoto (Nettuno/Eutyro), and Dominique Visse (Licco). Raphaël Pichon conducts the Choir and Orchestra Pygmalion. Set design by Laurent Peduzzi; costume design and machinery by Vanessa Sannino; lighting design by Christian Pinaud; movement collaboration by Rémi Boissy; puppets by Carole Allemand, Sophie Coeffic, and Valérie Lesort. Directed for TV by François Roussillon. Sung in Italian. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound.Grade: NA
Cavali was 14 years old when Shakespeare died, so anything by Cavali is early baroque opera. Hercules in Love was written to celebrate the marriage of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa in 1660. The original production with ballets added lasted 6 hours. So before you hit the play button, set aside time for a plunge into the cold waters of mythology and history . With something this old and outlandish, maybe the only way to go is slapstick comedy. David Vickers, writing in the May 2021 Gramophone (pages 74/75) praises this production effusively as “witty and eye-catching, with all sorts of surprising theatrical tricks” but also adds that the directors are “equally interested in touching pathos and telling insights when it counts.” The official trailer from Naxos, although short, would seem to support Vickers’ observations:
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