Double debut for Michele Mariotti, Musical Director of the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, who will fulfill his first conducting appointment at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, where he has been called to interpret Moïse et Pharaon for the first time in his career. Rossini’s masterpiece, an adaptation of his Mosè in Egitto into French Grand-Opéra, was never staged throughout the Festival’s long history, and is now scheduled from Thursday 7 July until Wednesday 20 July.
The show is a new production by German director Tobias Kratzer. Mariotti will be conducting the Orchestra and the Chorus of Lyon’s Opera, and a cast starring Michele Pertusi and Adrian Sâmpetrean respectively as Moïse and Pharaon, Jeanine De Bique as Anaï, Pene Pati as Aménophis, and Vasilisa Berzhanskaya as Sinaïde
Moïse et Pharaon, on a libretto by Luigi Balocchi and Étienne de Jouy, is going to be part of one of the chapters dedicated to Rossini within the prestigious Provence event, founded in 1948 by Gabriel Dussurget and Countess Lily Pastré. Rossini will indeed be one of the protagonists of this edition of the Festival where comic operas, serious operas and religious music by the composer from Pesaro have been staged since the 1950s.
The complete cast also includes Mert Süngü (Eliézer), Géraldine Chauvet (Marie), Edwin Crossley-Mercer (Osiride, A mysterious voice), Alessandro Luciano (Aufide). Involved in the production are also Rainer Sellmaier for the sets and costumes, and Bernd Purkrabek for the lights. The choreographies are by Jeroen Verbruggen. The Chorus is prepared by Richard Wilberforce.
The show, coproduced with the Opéra national de Lyon and Madrid’s Teatro Real will run at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché also on 9, 12, 14, 16 and 20 July. The performances of 12 and 14 July will be broadcast live starting at 21:30 on ARTE Concert and France Musique respectively.