Verdi Opens the Lyric Season

The Force of Destiny by Giuseppe Verdi is on the bill for the season of the Opéra National Orchestra Montpellier Occitanie which begins on September 22. The title refers to the inevitability of destiny: are our lives the result of our choices or led by destiny? The American conductor Roderick Cox, new musical director of the Montpellier National Opera Orchestra, will conduct this opera, famous for its melodic inventiveness.

Impossible love

The Force of Destiny (1869 version) is a lyric poem in four acts, inspired by a Spanish romantic melodrama. Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901) reveals conflicts, emotions and the violence of feelings in different paintings. In this opera, the characters love each other and tear each other apart. It is a journey through epic, religious and tragic scenes over many years. The Mexican soprano Yunuet Lagoon plays Donna Leonora, a strong woman whose existence is surrounded by a curse. Her father, the Marquis of Calatrava, opposed her marriage to Don Alvaro (the tenor Amadi Lagha), a descendant of the Incas.

Alvaro accidentally kills the marquis and the lovers are condemned to flight. Despite their separation – because Leonora believes herself abandoned – the lovers remain chased by the terrible vengeance of Don Carlo, Leonora’s brother – played by the baritone Stefano Méo.

The famous opening of Strength is often played independently of the work. L’aria sung by Leonora is joined by a climate of threats entrusted to the brass. We find there the themes of impossible love, destiny, the vain quest for appeasement… The baritone Leon Kim in the comic role of Brother Melitone, a preaching monk, brings quirky and amusing moments. Through this burlesque character, Verdi asserts his anticlericalism. The opera anchored in its time, notably the unification of Italy, strangely has current echoes. Alvaro is the outsider, the outcast.

Tragic and comic parts

Strength is a demanding opera whose musical richness is carried by the musicians and performers. The work is characterized by the repetition of an obscure force, the implacable march of destiny and its misfortunes. Roderick Cox has already directed an opera in Montpellier but is now musical director of the Montpellier Opera Orchestra. Despite the tragic plot of Strengthhe perceives the search for forgiveness and redemption of the two main characters: “ The harps are angelic and the numerous prayers (…) give this opera its musical tint unique. »

The director Yannis Kokkos proposes a reading of the work in its military and religious dimensions to allow an alternation between the tragic and comic parts. The setting is materialized by a convent, ruins caused by battles. The images projected during Act III are inspired by James Ensor, a Belgian symbolist painter. The atmosphere tends towards the abstract in the last act. At the Berlioz Opera, Yánnis Kókkos invites you to discover a dream shared by the three main characters: “ Their memories sometimes collide, there may be gaps, visions, ellipses. »

Fatma Alilate

The Force of Destiny by Giuseppe Verdi

Berlioz Opera – Le Corum, Montpellier

Booklet of Francesco Maria Piave

Roderick Cox, Musical Director of the Opera National Orchestra Montpellier Occitanie – musical direction

Yannis Kokkos, direction, sets and costumes

Stéphane Gröglerartistic collaboration in the staging; Anne Blancardartistic collaboration and dramaturgy; Paola Marianicostumes; Marta Bevilacquachoreography; Joseph of Ioriolights

Noelle Génychoir director; Choir National Opera Montpellier Occitanie ; Christophe Bernollinchoir director; Choir of the Toulon Opera ; Montpellier Occitanie National Orchestra

With : Yunuet LagoonDonna Leonora di Vargas (taking the role); Amadi LaghaDon Alvaro; Stefano MéoDon Carlo de Vargas; Vazgen GazarianFather Guardian; Leon KimBrother Melitone Éléonore PancraziPreziosilla; Jacques-Greg BeloboThe Marquis of Calatrava; Yoann Le LanTrabuco; Séraphine CotrezCurra; Laurent Séroua mayor; Yong Hyun Ryua surgeon

Sung in Italian, surtitled in French and English

Duration: ±3h40 with intermission, Prices: €26 to €80

Sunday September 22 – 5 p.m., Tuesday September 24 – 8 p.m., Friday September 27 – 8 p.m.

Co-production Fondazione Teatro Regio de Parma and Opera National Orchestra Montpellier Occitanie. Resumption in co-production with the Toulon Opera.