Les Barbares
Laurent Campellone conductor
with Catherine Hunold, Julia Gertseva, Edgaras Montvidas, Jean Teitgen, Shawn Mathey, Philippe Rouillon, Tigran Guiragosyan, Laurent Pouliaude, Ghezlane Hanzazi
Originally conceived as a full-scale open-air production for the Roman Theatre in Orange, the work was first performed at the Paris Opera’s Palais Garnier. The action downplays the bloodier aspects of the plot, focusing instead on the love-story between Floria, the Vestal Virgin, and Marcomir, the barbarian chief. The work’s musical climax is reached in their dramatic duet which ends Act II. Like his contemporary Massenet, Saint-Saëns demonstrates his ability in Les Barbares to shape his style to the source material at hand. And, like Berlioz before him in Les Troyens and Fauré, writing at the same time, in Pénélope, Saint-Saëns was quite happy labeling his own treatment of this historic 18th-century form a “lyric tragedy”. He even makes passing reference to the Franco-Prussian war of 1870…
Contents of the book
Marie-Gabrielle Soret, Saint-Saëns et l’art lyrique
Étienne Jardin, Le théâtre antique d’Orange avant « Les Barbares »
Marie-Gabrielle Soret, Luttes d’influence
Charles Joly, Un témoignage de la création
Sylvie Douche, La réception dans la presse parisienne
Synopsis
Libretto