Aucassin and Nicolette by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, M., pet. 25 feb. 2022, Od (2022/2022), Režija: Paul-Émile Fourny

It is a real curiosity that invites you to discover the Opéra de Reims. Originally, Aucassin et Nicolette is a literary work from the end of the 12th century , composed in Picard. If its anonymous author has raised many questions, this love story is above all the first and only chantefable of medieval literature which brings together prose and verse, music and story. The fable is simple: Aucassin, the son of the Comte de Beaucaire, is madly in love with Nicolette, a young prisoner of Saracen origin. In a feudal world insensitive to the miracle of love, this idyll gives rise to many adventures with escapes, shipwrecks, kidnappings, carried out at a furious pace. Inspired by this atypical masterpiece, the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) wrote, in 1938, an opera for voice, some puppets and an instrumental ensemble. But forced to flee the anti-Semitic Italy of Mussolini, he went into exile in the United States before the creation of the work. It was not until 1952 that Aucassin et Nicolette was performed for the first time, in French, in Florence. Nearly 50 years later, on the occasion of the Pergolèse Spontini Festival, Castelnuovo-Tedesco's opera was premiered in Italian, in a magical staging by Paul-Emile Fourny. The dreamlike decorations, the videos, the puppets, breathe an incomparable poetry into these pages imprinted with lyricism and the melodic qualities of the Italian school. A happy resurrection!