MCO's Berlioz Series 2018 at the Ope ra Royal, Versailles Each summer since 2015, the Orchestre R volutionnaire et Romantique (ORR) and John Eliot Gardiner have featured the music of Hector Berlioz in their annual appearances at London's famed BBC Proms festival. This year marks both the orchestra's 30th anniversary and the 150th anniversary of the French composer's death. To honor these twin milestones, Gardiner and the ORR return to the Royal Albert Hall to conclude their five-year commitment to Berlioz's music with a staged account of his first opera, Benvenuto Cellini, on September 2. Anchored by the Monteverdi Choir, with Michael Spyres in the title role, the Proms performance announced just today crowns the ensembles' high-profile European tour of the opera this summer. Also taking in the annual Festival Berlioz in the composer's birthplace, La C te-Saint-Andr (Aug 29), the Berliner Festspiele (Aug 31), and the Palace of Versailles (Sep 8), the tour represents the work's first modern performances on period instruments and provides a fitting sequel to the ensembles' transatlantic Berlioz Series 2018 tour, which after the London Proms performance prompted the Financial Times to marvel: Berlioz has no idea what he missed.
Rarely performed today, Benvenuto Cellini (1838) is the story of a maverick Florentine sculptor and goldsmith, whose lust for life repeatedly gets him into trouble. After eloping with the beautiful Teresa, daughter of the Pope's treasurer, Cellini hopes to escape papal retribution by casting the prelate a statue of Perseus. Running short of time and metal, he saves himself only by melting down all his previous artwork to feed the furnace. The casting is eventually successful, winning the sculptor not only the pardon of the Pope, but also Teresa's hand in marriage.John Eliot Gardiner, the winner of more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist, explains: Benvenuto Cellini has so much going for it ravishing music, a cast of three-dimensional characters, a gripping plot, love interest, a murder, a riotous carnival scene, phenomenal choruses, and a spine-chilling d nouement. There's no choral writing in opera to match it for sustained excitement and acrobatic virtuosity. Cellini is one long string of enchanting musical surprises. It's Berlioz at his most witty and exuberant. The opera's score exists in three main versions. For the upcoming tour, Gardiner has incorporated selections from all three, combining part of Berlioz's initial score, from before the rehearsals in 1838, with the version reflecting changes made during the first production and the revised version created by the composer for the Weimar revival of 1852, which was conducted by Liszt.The three ensembles that make up MCO the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, and Orchestre R volutionnaire et Romantique are a leading force on the international music scene. Comprising world-class instrumentalists and singers of many different nationalities, they help realize the distinctive vision of their Founder and Artistic Director, John Eliot Gardiner, in groundbreaking projects spanning eight centuries of musical masterpieces. The Monteverdi Choir was founded in 1964 to bring fresh drama and immediacy to the choral repertoire. Performing on period instruments, the English Baroque Soloists specialize in Baroque and early Classical music, while the Orchestre R volutionnaire et Romantique focuses on music of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Known for their expressive intensity, consummate technique, and historically informed performances, all three ensembles share an instantly recognizable core sound. Their 150-plus recordings have been honored with numerous prizes, including two Grammys and 14 Gramophone Awards.
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