Proserpine

« In Proserpine, we find two very different kinds of love. There’s the unconditional love of a mother for her daughter – and then there’s the passionate, transgressive love of Pluto, who’s prepared to do absolutely anything to carry Proserpina away, even if it means defying Jupiter himself. But Proserpina? She has no say in the matter. Her fate is sealed without so much as a word of consultation. She’s torn between her mother and her husband – six months on earth, six months in the Underworld.
After performances in Vienna and Versailles, returning to Beaune feels a little like Proserpina’s own return to the land of the living. It’s a familiar place for us, a festival with which we share a long history, and of course, there’s a natural affinity with Lully, whose music we’ve often brought to life here. Proserpine fits perfectly into the complete cycle of Lully’s works that we’ve been pursuing over the years. The opera itself is astonishing in its dramatic intensity: the abduction, the sublime laments, the descent of Jupiter, and an extraordinary moment when a character quite literally loses the power of speech under the force of an enchantment. It’s pure Lully – striking in its simplicity, yet deeply moving. And of course, this project gives us the pleasure of reuniting with the Namur Chamber Choir, and of playing in their home territory… It promises to be a wonderful musical and human adventure. »

– Christophe Rousset