Dangerous Liaisons

The passionate and virtuoso music of the Venetian composer is enjoying a real comeback. In this performance, Vivaldi’s most exciting arias come together in a new libretto. They tell an equally exciting story, based on the famous epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses: a fatal tale of love, situated in Venice at carnival time.

Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont play a dangerous game with love. The former lovers trump one another with sensual cruelties, daring one another to seduce others. Their relationship is challenged when Valmont appears to really fall for the charming but virtuous Présidente de Tourvel. In the vicious battle that ensues, everyone involved is eventually ruined. It is both a fatal love story and a portrait of an era in which a jaded élite collapses under its own intrigues.

The fierce emotions resonate in Vivaldi's vocal and instrumental fireworks, performed by a sparkling international cast and the leading musicians of the Bach Society. Newly composed recitatives link the arias and create a whole. This method was used before by OPERA2DAY with great success in La troupe d'Orphée (voted Opera of the Year in 2014), and later also in Dr. Miracle's last illusion. They are now succeeded by ‘a contemporary Vivaldi’.