MOSES AND PHARAOH
GIOACCHINO ROSSINI (1792 — 1868)
LIBRETTO BY LUIGI BALOCCHI AND ÉTIENNE DE JOUY
FIRST PERFORMED ON 26 MARCH 1827 AT THE ACADÉMIE ROYALE DE MUSIQUE (SALLE LE PELETIER, PARIS)
NEW PRODUCTION OF THE FESTIVAL D’AIX-EN-PROVENCE
IN COPRODUCTION WITH OPÉRA NATIONAL DE LYON, TEATRO REAL MADRID
— WITH THE SUPPORT OF MADAME ALINE FORIEL-DESTEZET, GRANDE DONATRICE D’EXCEPTION DU FESTIVAL D’AIX-EN-PROVENCE
Never had a larger subject been offered to a composer. Here the earth and its powers attempt to fight against God.
Honoré de Balzac, Massimilla Doni (1839)We never stop rediscovering Rossini’s inexhaustible genius and its multiple facets! When Egyptomania was at its height, the French made Rossini their idol and he decided to adapt one of his Neapolitan operas, thus aiming to conquer the Paris Opera. Moses and Pharaoh tells the story of the Hebrew’s departure from Egypt, which climax is the famous crossing of the Red Sea. It is a spectacular grand opera punctuated by plagues and miracles: a work of unique greatness and dramatic power with striking chorus orchestration and demonstrative vocality; a work which fascinated Stendhal and Balzac in their time. Prestigious newcomers are part of this first presentation at the Festival d’Aix: the great specialist of the Italian 19th century Michele Mariotti conducts a very promising cast dominated by Michele Pertusi’s legendary Moses. The multiple award-winner Tobias Kratzer – known for his intelligent rereadings – reminds us of the complex realities of today’s Mediterranean world, between realism and utopia.
- Log in to post comments
- Log in to post comments
- NEW YORK TIMES
Like in Resurrection, real-life tragedies are ambiguously but potently evoked – as they are, too, in Tobias Kratzer’s production of Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon.
[...] Kratzer does not seem interested in angry indictments, or past accusations of complicity. His staging is, more subtly and powerfully, a sad, unsettling suggestion of our unmalicious but all-too-willing forgetfulness.
- FINANCIAL TIMES
Aix Festival reviews: a spellbinging Moses and Pharaoh, a gut-wrenching Resurrection.
Kratzer and his team have turned over every line of the libretto again and again, and the level of insight is boogling.
- LIBÉRATION
Que ce soit sous le ciel étoilé de la cour de l’Archevêché, ou en direct, le 12 juillet sur Arte, il ne faut pas manquer ce rare et bel hommage au chant français.
Tickets: 31€, 59€, 90€, 130€, 165€, 206€, 297€
Youth ticket: 9€
Family Opera Tariff
Performance available with ticket packages and Prestige offer
3 hours and 30 minutes with two intervals
Sung in French with French and English surtitles
