Premiere US Premiere
Production Language Italian
Country of Origin Italy
Description In its first staged performances in the US, Handel’s magnificent, yet largely unknown opera, Siroe, comes to BAM this April in a celebrated production by the award-winning Venice Baroque Orchestra. Led since its 1997 debut by Andrea Marcon, the period instrument orchestra has quickly established itself in the top tier of Baroque specialists (“…a youthful group that plays zestily and with a tightly drilled ensemble” states The New York Times). The production also marks the first time in a quarter-century that Americans can experience the work of renowned director Jorge Lavelli whose productions have appeared at La Scala, the Paris National Opera, and La Théâtre National de la Colline, among countless other European stages.
Cosroe, Persia’s aged monarch, faces a royal conundrum: he must choose which of his two sons will inherit the kingdom. Will it be the kind and genteel Siroe, the rightful heir, or the younger, cagey Medarse, who seethes with ambition? There’s more. Cosroe’s ladylove fancies young Siroe. He, however, has his eyes on the princess, Emira, who, disguised as a man, is out to avenge her father’s killer—none other than King Cosroe. Soon enough the kingdom is roiled by a malicious web of false accusation, vengeance, and betrayal in a saga of Lear-like proportions. Throughout, Handel’s score soars, defining in his singular style the tragic and the transcendent, the sordid and the sublime in Metastasio’s dark libretto.
Identifier 2004s.00788
