From September 7th -18th, the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2022 will take you on a journey into the dazzling world of the Baroque with 16 events at five venues in Bayreuth. The third edition is dedicated to the Roman opera.
The brilliant start is made by the new production of Leonardo Vinci's Alessandro nell’Indie by the artistic director of the opera festival Max Emanuel Cencic - with an all-male cast. In addition, two concertante operas, an oratorio and 13 concerts present the virtuoso Roman baroque repertoire with stars of the international baroque scene like Franco Fagioli, Bruno des Sá, George Petrou, Jeanine De Bique, Julia Lezhneva and many more. The resident orchestra of this year's edition is {oh!} Orkiestra under the musical direction of Martyna Pastuszka.
For the first time in almost 300 years, Vinci's opera Alessandro nell’Indie about Alexander the Great's campaign in India will be heard in its entirety on the first night of the opera festival at Bayreuth's Margravial Opera House. True to the premiere, there is an all-male cast with Franco Fagioli (Poro), Bruno de Sá (Cleofide), Jake Arditti (Erissena), Dennis Orellana (Alessandro), Stefan Sbonnik (Gandarte) and Nicholas Tamagna (Timagene); music is performed by the {oh!} Orkiestra and the choir of the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival under the musical direction of Martyna Pastuszka. Pietro Metastasio's libretto was set to music almost 80 times, and Wilhelmine von Bayreuth also published an opera based on this popular libretto in Erlangen in 1741.
Bayreuth Baroque will present three more theatrical-concert performances in 2022:
The Festa pastorale Il Nascimento dell'aurora (Sept. 15) by the great Venetian melodist Tomaso Albinoni was written to honor Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel on the occasion of her birthday. The plot of the work, which probably premiered in 1711, mixes allegorical, sweet-natured nothingness with allusions to the War of the Spanish Succession.
Giovanni Bononcini's Griselda will be performed in its entirety for the first time since 1733, with recitative texts by Apostolo Zenos newly composed especially by the composer and baroque specialist Dragan Karolić. The dramma per musica tells the story of Gualtiero, King of Sicily, who loves the shepherdess Griselda, which naturally must lead to conflict due to the order of the estates (Sept. 18).
Since opera, as a secular genre, was at the mercy of papal censorship in 17th-century Rome, oratorios of sacred content became the preferred and most successful works in the Papal States. Like Alessandro nell'Indie, the oratorio San Giovanni Battista by the scandal-ridden composer Alessandro Stradella will be performed in a candlelight concert with an all-male cast, modeled on the premiere (Sept. 14).
Other highlights of this year's edition include gala concerts with Bruno de Sá and Il Pomo d'Oro (Sept. 16), Max Emanuel Cencic celebrates 40 years on stage in Bayreuth with Armonia Atenea, last year's resident orchestra (Sept. 10), Jeanine De Bique comes with Concerto Köln (Sept. 8) and Julia Lezhneva will perform with this year's resident orchestra {oh!} Orkiestra (Sept.17).
The program is rounded off by many other concerts at historic locations in Bayreuth, including the dinner concert in the Sun Temple of the Orangery in the Hermitage, which was so popular last year. New this year are candlelight concerts in the city and castle churches and, for the first time, three concerts in the Ordenskirche St. Georgen.
Detailed information on all Bayreuth Baroque 2022 events and tickets can be found at: www.bayreuthbaroque.de/
