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Jean-Philippe Rameau was 50 years old when he undertook to write his first music for the stage. Coming up from behind to win the match is always a good feeling, as sports writers like to tell us. And this is indeed what Rameau went on to do: he died at 81 as the most successful and prolific of France's opera composers of the Baroque era.
Thus far unknown in Hungary, Dardanus is Rameau's fifth effort in the genre, making it a relatively early opera of his. Dating from 1739, the work makes reference to Greek mythology, the source of some of its familiar characters. The story itself, however, is the invention of its librettist, Charles-Antoine Le Clerc de La Bruère. The interesting aspect about this work's genesis is the fact that it was revised several times: first in 1744, and then again in 1760. The third version brought the hitherto tepidly received opera true acclaim, to the extent that Rameau would henceforth be referred to as 'the creator of Dardanus'.
György Vashegyi and his two early music ensembles, the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra, are presenting Dardanus as a co-production of Müpa Budapest and the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. Over the years, the Hungarian concert world has enjoyed the fruits of this collaboration, not least of all the opportunity to enjoy many little-known treasures of French Baroque music. The vocal soloists performing in the production are outstanding artists who have had the chance to convince Hungarian music fans of their skill and talent in more than one of Vashegyi's previous productions. These include tenor Cyrille Dubois, who is singing the title role, as well as sopranos Judith van Wanroij and Chantal Santon Jeffery and baritones Tassis Christoyannis and Thomas Dolié: all of them have already left the Müpa Budapest audience with lovely memories from several productions.
Co-production of Müpa Budapest and Centre de musique baroque de Versailles with the support of Institut Français de Budapest and Orfeo Music Foundation Budapest. Performance material: Opera omnia de Rameau, Bärenreiter-Verlag Kassel · Basel · London · New York · Praha
The concert will be preceded, at 5 pm, by an introductory presentation by Benoît Dratwicki entitled Prelude in the Glass Hall (in English with Hungarian interpretation), which will be open to anyone holding a ticket for the performance.
Presented by: Müpa Budapest
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We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
