Cinq-Mars
Drame lyrique in four acts (1877)
Music by Charles Gounod
Concertante performance in French
Tuesday, 27 January 2015, 7 pm
Conductor: Ulf Schirmer
With Véronique Gens, Charles Castronovo et al.
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
In Co-operation with Palazetto Bru Zane Venedig
Synopsis
In 1852, Charles Gounod created one of the most famous works in the history of music: Méditation sur le 1er prélude de Bach, better known as Gounod’s Ave Maria. The deeply religious Gounod chiefly composed masses, oratorios, cantatas and operas. He scored his first stage success in 1859 with his fourth opera, Faust, which remains his best known work in this genre to this day. In his first two operas, Sapho (1851) and Le médecin malgré lui (1858, The physician in spite of himself) Gounod demonstrated his talent for creating a new work with and by means of the imitation and combination of older styles. He employed the same technique for his drame lyrique Cinq-Mars in 1877. The opera deals primarily with the love story of Princess Marie de Gonzague and the Marquis de Cinq-Mars; for her sake, or rather because it has been decreed that she should marry the King of Poland, Cinq-Mars joins the conspiracy against Cardinal Richelieu. The conspiracy is discovered, and Cinq-Mars is incarcerated in a dungeon and sentenced to death. His confidant, de Thou, devises a plan to rescue him the next day, but the execution is brought forward one day, meaning that Cinq-Mars is doomed.
Cast
Drame lyrique in vier Akten (1877)
Music by Charles Gounod
Libretto by Paul Poirson & Louis Gallet after Alfred de Vigny historic novel of the same name
Concertante performance in French
Conductor | Ulf Schirmer |
Biography |
Le marquis de Cinq-Mars | Charles Castronovo |
Biography |
La princesse Marie de Gonzague | Véronique Gens |
Biography |
Le conseiller de Thou | Tassis Christoyannis |
Biography |
Le père Joseph | Andrew Foster-Williams |
Biography |
Marion Delorme | Norma Nahoun |
Biography |
Montmort | L´ambassadeur | Andrew Lepri Meyer |
Biography |
Montrésor | Eustache | Matthias Ettmayr |
Biography |
De Brienne | Wolfgang Klose |
Biography |
Orchestra | Münchner Rundfunkorchester |
Biography |
Choir | Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks |
Biography |
