Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 - 1736)

Roland

1684
Opera in 1 prologue and 5 acts
Distribution
Direction
Christophe Rousset
Soloists
Nicolas Testé, Anna-Maria Panzarella, Olivier Dumait, Monique Zanetti, Robert Getchell, Salomé Haller, Evguenyi Alexiev, Emiliano Gonzales-Toro, Anders J. Dahlin, Marie-Hélène Essade, Delphine Gillot
Les Talens Lyriques
Choeur de l'Opéra de Lausanne
Roland Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 - 1736)

Roland, an undoubted masterpiece, was among the last operas Lully composed. It shows an overall dramatic unity that brings it close to earlier works such as Thésée or Atys. And Armide, written after Roland, follows the same pattern. The epic vein has been abandoned here, as have all mythological elements, and the story is centered on the French paladin, nephew of Charlemagne, Roland, whose praises are sung in many literary works, the most famous of them being Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso. This vast poem also inspired Lully to compose the ballets Alcine (1610) and the Le Palais d’Alcine (1664). In Italy, Francesca Caccini based an opera on the poem: La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (Florence, 1625). (…)”

Christophe Rousset
Lausanne, december 2003

With the generous support of Rosalie and André Hoffmann, the Banque de Dépôts et de Gestion and the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne.

© Naïve/Ambroisie/Astrée

Listen to
an excerpt

3 CD Ambroisie / AMB 9949
Recorded at the Opéra de Lausanne in January 2004
Released in 2004