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Opera on 3

Music: Classical: Opera

Programme presenting rare and fascinating operatic performances

Programme presenting rare and fascinating performances and vividly communicating the immediacy of the live experience

Opera on 3: Chabrier's L'Etoile

Performances & Events

Music: Classical

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20/02/2016

Chabrier's L'Etoile

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, Chabrier's L'Etoile

Chabrier's comic opera L'Etoile, live from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Live from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Mark Elder conducts a performance of Chabrier's comic opera L'Etoile. With Christophe Mortagne as King Ouf I.

Chabrier: L'Étoile

Chabrier's comic opera L'Étoile is a rarity but is considered to be a masterpiece of the genre. It was first performed to great success in 1877 and was performed 48 times in its first run. It's a wonderfully ridiculous plot, with each role perfectly characterised in the music. The story begins on King Ouf's birthday (the tenor Christophe Mortagne), which he always celebrates with a public impalement, and this year his victim is the pedlar Lazuli (a role for a mezzo-soprano and sung tonight by Kate Lindsey), who unwittingly struck the King without knowing who he was. However, when the King's astrologer Siroco (bass-baritone Simon Bailey) tells the King that his star and Lazuli's are so closely bound that they will die on the same day, the King cancels the execution. Chabrier's charming and beautiful score includes musical gems such as the comic duet between Ouf and Siroco, and Princess Laoula's Rose Air. Sir Mark Elder conducts the Royal Opera's first ever production of L'Étoile, directed by Mariame Clément, live from Covent Garden.
Martin Handley presents and talks to the writer and musicologist Nigel Simeone. 

King Ouf I ..... Christophe Mortagne (tenor)
Siroco ..... Simon Bailey (bass-baritone)
Prince Hérisson de Porc-Epic ..... François Piolino (tenor)
Tapioca ..... Aimery Lefèvre (baritone)
Lazuli ..... Kate Lindsey (mezzo-soprano)
Princesse Laoula ..... Hélène Guilmette (soprano)
Aloès ..... Julie Boulianne (mezzo-soprano)
Patacha ..... Samuel Sakker (tenor)
Zalzal ..... Samuel Dale Johnson (baritone)
Smith ..... Chris Addison (actor)
Dupont ..... Jean-Luc Vincent (actor)

Royal Opera House Chorus
Royal Opera House Orchestra
Mark Elder (conductor).

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