THE WORK

Ercole Amante was commissioned by Cardinal Mazarin from the Abbot Butti and the Venetian composer Francesco Cavalli for the wedding in 1662 of the young French sovereign Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse, Infanta of Spain. This union of the Sun King and the heiress to the Spanish throne was intended to seal a definitive peace between France and Spain.

The marriage was thus an apotheosis, and the opera commissioned by Mazarin, prefiguring and imagining this apotheosis, was meant to be a crowning glory. It recalls the special connection between the kingdoms of France and God. It praises Christ the King, the sovereign saviour, who, through this particular alliance with Spain, frees His people from the chains of war and disorder. To perfect this work of dream and prefiguration, Mazarin not only turned to Italian opera, a genre then little-known in France, but also called upon the French tradition of courtly ballet, commissioning from Lully numbers to be inserted in the sung drama. A complete spectacle. Ballet and lyric tragedy, Lully and Cavalli. An apotheosis ...

For more details :

• Ercole Amante : Pearls before swine, Pierre Kuentz
• The historical context

SUPERVISION

A team of Baroque specialists

Gabriel Garrido
Artistic Director
Pierre Kuentz
Stage Director
Ana Yepes
Choreography

For more details

CALENDAR

Training course

Centre culturel de rencontre d'Ambronay
for soloists and dancers
From the 1st to the 10th of July 2006

Theatre of Bourg-en-Bresse
From the 21rst of August to the 23rd of September 2006

Performances

Theater of Bourg-en-Bresse
24th and 26th of September
in conjonction with the 27th Ambronay Festival

European Tour

From the 27th of September to the 22nd of October 2006.