Organization

Conductor

Leonardo García Alarcón

Stage director

Jean-Yves Ruf

Set designer

Laure Pichat

Costume designer

Claudia Jenatsch

Lighting designer

Christian Dubet

Cécile Kretschmar

Monica Pustilnik

Chorus master

Fabián Schofrin

Singer

Soprano

Mariana Flores

Deidamia

Tenor

Valerio Contaldo

Diomede

Baritone

Alejandro Meerapfel

Licomede

Norma Nahoun

Minerva

La Fama

Kacper Szelążek

Eunuco

Marcel Beekman

Nodrice

Bass

Salvo Vitale

Capitano

Julie Roset

Aurora

Giunone

Alexander Miminoshvili

Vulcano

Giove

Fiona McGown

Tetide

Vittoria

Anna Piroli

Donzella 1

Sarah Hauss

Donzella 2

Aurélie Marjot

Donzella 3

Ruben Ruf

Pirro

Sébastien Chabane

Gardes

Maëlle Desclaux

Femmes du gynécée

Sidney Cadot

Priscilla Bescond

Countertenor

Filippo Mineccia

Achille

Assistant to the music director

Assistant

Set assistant

Fanny Gamet

Gabriel Jublin

Ulisse

Opéra Royal de Versailles

Opéra de Dijon

Others

Cappella Mediterranea

Italian

La finta pazza -  (The Feigned Madwoman)

Versailles

France

Opéra Royal

The first opera ever performed in France comes back to the French stage nearly four centuries later: Francesco Scarpati’s La finta pazza lights up the magnificent Royal Chapel of Versailles!

Though the opera was first performed in Venice in 1641, its history in France dates to 1645, when Cardinal Mazarin invited an Italian troupe to entertain the seven-year-old Louis XIV. It met with considerable immediate success, thanks in part to its spectacular ballet sequences involving parrots, ostriches, and bears—and then was nearly lost to history. Three centuries later in 1983, the discovery of a sole surviving score piqued public interest with its musical freshness and similarities to Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, as well as the first “mad scene” ever sung in a theater.

Based upon the Trojan War tale Achilles on Skyros, the plot is a typical example of Italian Baroque: Achilles, wishing to avoid war, hides with his lover Deidamia, disguised as a princess. The couple, brilliantly played by Mariana Flores and Filippo Mineccia, live in an idyllic setting until Odysseus and Diomedes (brought to the stage by the captivating Gabriel Junin and Valerio Contaldo) demand that Achilles join the Greek troops—which ends up driving Deidamia to madness.

With its disguises and its gender-bending dynamics, plus a meta-theatrical mise en abyme, La finta pazza surprises with its modernity, enhanced by the charming staging of Jean-Yves Ruf and the impeccable orchestral conducting by Leonardo García Alarcón.

Château de Versailles

Chapelle royale

The first opera ever performed in France comes back to the French stage nearly four centuries later: Francesco Sacrati’s La finta pazza lights up the magnificent Royal Chapel of Versailles!

Though the opera was first performed in Venice in 1641, its history in France dates to 1645, when Cardinal Mazarin invited an Italian troupe to entertain the seven-year-old Louis XIV. It met with considerable immediate success, thanks in part to its spectacular ballet sequences involving parrots, ostriches, and bears—and then was nearly lost to history. Three centuries later in 1983, the discovery of a sole surviving score piqued public interest with its musical freshness and similarities to Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, as well as the first “mad scene” ever sung in a theater.

Based upon the Trojan War tale Achilles on Skyros, the plot is a typical example of Italian Baroque: Achilles, wishing to avoid war, hides with his lover Deidamia, disguised as a princess. The couple, brilliantly played by Mariana Flores and Filippo Mineccia, live in an idyllic setting until Odysseus and Diomedes (brought to the stage by the captivating Gabriel Jublin and Valerio Contaldo) demand that Achilles join the Greek troops—which ends up driving Deidamia to madness.

With its disguises and its gender-bending dynamics, plus a meta-theatrical mise en abyme, La finta pazza surprises with its modernity, enhanced by the charming staging of Jean-Yves Ruf and the impeccable orchestral conducting by Leonardo García Alarcón.

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