L’Orfeo

Luigi Rossi

Tragicomedy in three acts.
Libretto by Francesco Buti.

Created on 2 March 1647 at the Palais Royal in Paris, Rossi’s Orfeo introduced France to Italian opera! While the disastrous financial consequences of Mazarin’s ‘coup’ helped precipitate the events of the Fronde, the situation was quite different in the orchestra pit. When Italian and French musicians joined forces, magic happened: it is precisely this magic that Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion recreate here, thanks to a masterful reconstruction and a vibrant, multi-coloured orchestra that brings each character to life. But the dramatic power of the myth of Orpheus is also expressed through Jetske Mijnssen’s staging, which transposes the story into the spirit of our time: a powerful evocation of the timeless experience of love and death that our deepest humanity both desires and fears.

Reconstruction by Raphaël Pichon and Miguel Henry. Edition by Nicolas Sceaux for Pygmalion.

Filmed at the Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine, 2016.

Directed by Stéphane Vérité.

Oxymore productions