Cavalli: Elena

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Product Description ------------------- Recorded live during the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July 2013, Cavalli's Elena had not been performed for more than 350 years. The international press hailed this rediscovery as one of the major events on the lyric scene. With Jean-Yves Ruf 's imaginative staging, served by an exceptional cast made up of young singers brought together by the Academy of the Aix Festival, this work is also sublimated by the talent of the instrumentalists of the Cappella Mediterranea and the theatrical talent of Leonardo Garcia Alarcon. Elena relates the first adventures of Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, coveted by numerous men including Menelaus, who disguises himself as an to approach her, and Theseus, who abducts her and tries to seduce her to the great displeasure of his legitimate fiancee, Hippolyta. Numerous colourful or tragic characters come to complicate the situations in this mythological farce. Review ------ "Jean-Yves Ruf's production of Francesco Cavalli's Elena does an exemplary job of bringing this long-neglected score from 1659 to theatrical life. Pichat's sets are suggestive rather than representational, and the scene-changes are ingeniously managed. Jenatsch's effective costumes don't distance us from the action, as historical outfits might, but do avoid the ordinariness of modern dress. And Ruf has elicited from his strong cast alert dramatic performances, marked be believable relationships and effective reactions in the moment. The opera's duration becomes a powerful, persuasive emotional journey, movingly culminating in the final quartet." --Opera News, February 2015 "The production's success also owes much to Leonardo Garcia Alarcon's musical direction, responsive to both the lively, dance-y elements and the moments of lyrical depth. The shifts among arioso, aria and ensemble are seamless; the various brief vocal ensembles--including trios, quartets and even a quintet--are deftly shipshape. The eleven-member Capella Mediterranea responds with full, expressive sound." --Opera News, February 2015