Beatrice und Benedict by Berlioz, Ab (2020/2021), Unter der Regie von Damiano Michieletto, Dirigat Daniele Rustioni, Opéra Nouvel de Lyon, Lyon, Frankreich

Among Berlioz's strangest and most captivating scores, Béatrice et Bénédict holds a special place in the abundant work of the composer of the Symphonie Fantastique . This comic opera with a pitch worthy of a series is inspired by Shakeaspeare's very popular and enjoyable romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing , here extensively revised, condensed and completed. Classic in its structure, the work shines with the composer's precision in the symbiosis of voice and instruments. Premiered in 1862 in Baden Baden and completed a year later, the piece took thirty years to find its final form in Berlioz's mind! The composer here gives a preponderant place to the Orchestra, of which he exploits all the possibilities and nuances. Concise and limpid, poetic and energetic, infinitely modern in its narration, there is no doubt that this canticle of love will deploy all its dramaturgy in the staging of the very imaginative Damiano Michieletto.