Caroline Meng

This work – the only opera that follows the career of the Roman Emperor Caligula and his madness, passion and power – was a great success when it was first performed in Venice, largely because of the originality and the fine psychological insight of its libretto and the subtelty of its musical score. There have been some memorable puppet-theatre performances of opera, but with Caligula Le Poème Harmonique and Arcal invite us to savour something quite original by bringing together two artistic traditions that have long been separated: those of Venetian opera and Sicilian puppet-theatre. On stage, the singers and instrumentalists, conducted by Vincent Dumestre, lend their voices and rich sound to the pupi of Mimmo Cuticchio, large stick-puppets belonging to a great theatrical tradition dating back to the seventeenth century.

La Vie parisienne (Parisian life) is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, composed by Jacques Offenbach in 1866, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. This work was Offenbach's first full-length piece to portray contemporary Parisian life, unlike his earlier period pieces and mythological subjects. It became one of Offenbach's most popular operettas.

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