It is the story of a success story. Inaugurated in 2020, in the heart of the pandemic, by the Croatian countertenor and director Max Emanuel Cencic, who is also artistic director, the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival is taking place, from September 7 to 18, a third high-flying edition. The bet of offering a cultural counterpoint to the great summer Wagnerian festival (founded in 1876) by the city of Upper Franconia seems to have been met if we judge by the groups in evening clothes which converge at the end of the afternoon. rainy Friday, September 9 to the Margraves Opera, a Baroque building with 490 seats built between 1744 and 1748, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.
Because he was an XVIIIe century, let us remember, where Bayreuth hosted the operas of Telemann, Cesti and Keizer, where the Margravine Wilhelmina of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, sister of Frederick II of Prussia and friend of Voltaire, herself a musician and composer (her opera, Argenore, premiered in 1740, has seen several recent productions at the Opera des Margraves, of which it was the sponsor), animated one of the most brilliant courts in Europe. A time that would not have been spoiled by the sumptuous production ofAlessandro nell’Indie, by Leonardo Vinci, which Max Emanuel Cencic has just brought back to life as a world premiere (the work had never been revived since its creation during the carnival of 1730 at the Teatro delle Dame in Rome). Stunning cast, spirited staging, engaged musical direction: this long exceptional evening has been visible on the Arte website since Sunday, September 11.
Concocted by star librettist Pietro Metastasio (his Alessandro gave rise to no less than 80 settings, including one by Wilhelmina of Bayreuth, in 1741), the libretto recounts the conquest of India by Alexander the Great (Alessandro) and the defeat of King Porus (Poro) in 326 BC during the Battle of Hydaspes. As often in baroque opera, the story is only a pretext for lamentations, furies, declarations of love and battles – the human mechanics of human passions. On the one hand, the devouring jealousy of King Porus, with regard to his betrothed, Queen Cleofide, too close to Alessandro for his taste, which will lead him to the brink of suicide and then of vengeful madness and femicide. On the other, the aspiration of the fairer sex to govern themselves, whether politically, sentimentally or sexually. Thus Princess Erissena, sister of Poro, claiming to love according to her heart and her sensuality.
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