Modern World Premiere of a barock opera – Program Change: L’Echo Ravvivata

Opera in three acts from 1666.
Premiere: Vienna, 12 July 1666
Modern premiere: Český Krumlov, Baroque Castle Theatre, 15-17 September 2023
Performers:
Hof-Musici Baroque Ensemble, stage director Zuzana Vrbová, directed from the harpsichord by Ondřej Macek.
Antonio Cesti (1623–1669), together with Francesco Cavalli (1602–1676), is one of the most important Italian opera composers of the 17th century. His operas were performed in the most important Italian musical centers, especially in Venice, Naples, and Florence. However, Cesti also made his mark on the history of music in Central Europe. From 1652 to 1657 he was Kapellmeister to Archduke Ferdinand Karl in Innsbruck, and from 1665 to 1667 he held the prestigious post of Kapellmeister to Emperor Leopold I in Vienna. Here he composed his most famous opera, Il Pomo d’Oro. Its performance on the occasion of the Emperor’s marriage is one of the most famous and elaborate operatic performances of the 17th century.
Antonio Cesti’s name appears in all the basic treatises on the history of music, but only a tiny fraction of his vast oeuvre is performed on today’s opera stages and concert halls. Our staging of Cesti’s opera Nettuno e Flora festeggianti aims to introduce the audience to the work of this important composer and to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of his birth.