Dramma per musica in one prologue and three acts
Libretto by Aurelio Aureli
First performed on 26 (or the 30) December 1655 at the Theater San Apollinare, Venice.

A king haunted by nightmares, princes as charming as they are flighty, a young woman disguised as a warrior to find her unfaithful lover, a slave who wants to be queen without giving up her lovers – without forgetting the old nurse who dreams of love! The portrait gallery on which Erismena opens promises dizzying romantic intrigue. This work by Cavalli, who had become the most eminent opera composer of his time, seems to have been a huge success following its creation in Venice in 1655, if the large number of productions staged over the following twenty years or so – even reaching as far as England – are anything to go by. Maestro Leonardo García Alarcón, a fervent admirer of Cavalli, joins forces with director Jean Bellorini, poet of the stage and leader of the company, to revive this rarely-performed work. With its wealth of arias and tragicomic situations, Erismena offers a romantic, human kind of opera, in contrast to the mythological works of previous decades. There are no more gods here, or ancient heroes, but kings, princesses, soldiers and slaves carried away by a deliciously convoluted plot in which disguise and hidden identities become the allies of allconquering desire.

Distribution

Conductor Leonardo García Alarcón
Stage Director and Lighting Designer Jean Bellorini
Stage Designer Jean Bellorini et Véronique Chazal
Costume Designer Macha Makeïeff

Make-up and hairstyling Cécile Kretschmar
Stage Director Associate Mathieu Coblentz
Conductor Assistant and Vocal Coach Monica Pustilnik
Vocal Coach Ariel Rychter, Jacopo Raffaele
Music and Language Advisor Fabián Schofrin
Costumes Assistant Claudine Crauland

Erismena Francesca Aspromonte
Idraspe Carlo Vistoli
Aldimira Susanna Hurrell (Aix, Versailles) / Benedetta Mazzucato (Saint-Denis)
Orimeno Jakub Józef Orliński
Erimante Alexander Miminoshvili
Flerida Lea Desandre (Aix) / Benedetta Mazzucato (Versailles, Saint-Denis)
Argippo Andrea Vincenzo Bonsignore
Alcesta Stuart Jackson (Aix, Versailles) / Patrick Kilbride (Saint-Denis)
Clerio Moro Tai Oney (Aix, Versailles) / Paul-Antoine Bénos (Saint-Denis)
Diarte Jonathan Abernethy (Aix) / Patrick Kilbride (Versailles, Saint-Denis)

Orchestra Cappella Mediterranea

Co-production

New production of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
In co-production with the Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
With the support of enoa and Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Press review

Erismena in Aix was an incredible feat, captivating its audience for nearly three hours, evoking a thunderous applause… It was the youth and the charm and the excellent artistry of these artists that made the inanities of Venetian opera into high art and great entertainment.

Erismena - OPERA TODAY

Distribution

Conductor Leonardo García Alarcón
Stage Director and Lighting Designer Jean Bellorini
Stage Designer Jean Bellorini et Véronique Chazal
Costume Designer Macha Makeïeff

Orchestra Cappella Mediterranea