Charles the Bald by Porpora, From (2021/2021), Conductor Markellos Chryssicos

Carlo il Calvo is a serious opera by the 18th-century Italian composer Nicola Antonio Porpora, re-released with great success in 2020 as part of the new Bayreuth Barroque Opera Festival held at the Margravine Theater in Bayreuth, a space built at the beginning of the 20th century. XVIII and preserved in its entirety since then. Carlo il Calvo was performed for the first time in 1738 at the Teatro delle Dame, the most important theater of the time in Rome. The cast was made up entirely of men and castrati. Women were not allowed to appear in public in the Papal States. The opera by Nicola Antonio Porpora, whose score has been preserved at the Naples Conservatory, is based on a 1699 Venetian libretto which, under various titles, was set to music by composers such as Vinacessi, Keller, Alessandro Scarlatti, Orlandini, Predieri, Fioré, Hurlebusch, Telemann and Vivaldi. The plot is set in that period of the High Middle Ages when Charlemagne's Europe was disintegrating at the hands of his feuding heirs. Its distinctive feature is that the titular hero, Carlos, is a boy. Luis the German, Carlos's half brother and Charlemagne's grandson, kidnaps the legitimate heir to the throne to strip him of his sovereignty. This gives Carlos's mother the opportunity to experience heartbreaking scenes of despair and impressive outbursts of feeling. In the role of Luis, induced to do evil by malicious courtiers, Max Emanuel Cencic has the opportunity to launch himself into scenes of great paroxysm. Only Franco Fagioli, as the noble knight Adalgiso, has what it takes to stop the tyrant and restore God-given order. But in doing so, The production was voted “Best New Production of 2020” by the readers of the French online magazine ForumOpéra.