BEMF Opera | 2001 Centerpiece Opera

Lully’s Thésée

June 11, 12, 13, 15, and 16, 2001
Copley Theatre, Boston, MA

June 24, 2001
Tanglewood Summer Music Festival, Lenox, MA

Lully's third opera, Thésée was first performed on January 10, 1675. It was a huge success at the premiere and at repeated revivals during the 17th and 18th centuries throughout France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. Thésée was so popular that it remained in the repertory of the Paris Opera for more than a hundred years! BEMF's American première production—which will travel around the world—will represent the first fully staged professional performance of Thésée since 1789. Drawing on our experience from the 1997 and 1999 Festivals in producing the great Italian operas composed for the French court which paved the way for Lully's brilliant tragedies lyriques, we have assembled an all-star group of singers, instrumentalists, dancers and directors with years of specialization in 17th-century French performance practice.

Thésée is a feast for the eyes and ears. It is an extremely dramatic but lyrical work, with colorfully varied music, spectacular ballets, and brilliant special effects, from the frightful ghosts, monsters, and flying dragons of Hell to the delightful inhabitants of an Enchanted Island with their magical music and dance. The kaleidoscopic score includes exhilarating battle choruses with trumpets and drums, delicate trios for flutes and sopranos, dark, frightening choruses sung by evil spirits, tender love duets, moving laments, and a comic character dance featuring two old men desperately in love with younger women. The beautiful, melodious arias and love duets of Thésée survived as popular hits well into the 18th century, and were as well-known in their day as the beloved arias of Puccini and Verdi are today. A warning to first-time listeners: the tunes are addictive and will stay in your ears for weeks after the performance!