| Italian premiere
Opera-ballet in 2 acts
by Albert Roussel (1869-1937)
libretto Louis Laloy
music Albert Roussel
conductor Emmanuel Villaume
director Sanjay Leela Bhansali
with Nicole Piccolomini, Giorgio Surian, John Bellemer, Philippe Do, Alessia Nadin, Ivan Ludlow, Raphaël Brémard, Jean-Vincent Blot, Alain Gabriel choreography Tanusree Shankar
set design Omung Kumar Bhandula
costume design Rajesh Pratap Singh
lighting design Somak Mukherjee
Czech National Symphony Orchestra of Prague, Châtelet Choir
chorus maestro Stephen Betteridge
production Théâtre du Châtelet
in collaboration with
Spoleto 51. Festival dei 2 Mondi | This opera-ballet was staged in Italy at the beginning of the Fifties directed by Andre Cluytens in Naples, and at the beginning of the 70s directed by Georges Prêtre in Florence. Presented after a long preparation in Paris in 1923, the opera was inspired by the author’s journeys to the East and it elaborates manners, elements and structures of Oriental music in a Neoclassical style, finding an important place within the Oriental world that strongly influenced French culture in the most original of ways.
In this opera-ballet, reinventing Lully’s genre, Roussel merges music, theatre, and dance elements indissolubly. The libretto was written by Orientalist Louis Laloy and is based on the ancient chronicles of India. |
