The era of Marie-Antoinette, rediscovered, theme of the 2022 season of Opéra Lafayette, will offer three programs of French music from the 1760s to the 1780s and a unique focus on its resonance in the Americas:

Silvain, a fully staged modern creation of Grétry’s 1770 opera, much admired by Marie-Antoinette, and the first opera performed in New Orleans (1796).

• Thursday, June 2 and Friday, June 3 at 7:30 a.m. at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC
• Tuesday, June 7 7:00 a.m. at El Museo del Barrio in New York City

The Salon Musical de Marie-Antoinette, a chamber concert with works by Gluck, Chevalier de Saint Georges, Hinner and others.

• Wednesday June 8, 2022 7:00 a.m. at El Museo del Barrio in New York City

Spiritual Concert in the Caribbean (Caribbean Spiritual Concert) with music by Gossec, Dalayrac, Pergolesi, and others, with a critical look at the meaning of French music in the Caribbean colonies.

• Thursday, February 10, 7:30 a.m. at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC

• Thursday, June 9 at 7:00 a.m. at El Museo del Barrio in New York City

Silvanus

This one-act opéra-comique from 1770 by André Grétry, on a libretto by Jean-François Marmontel, is repeated in the American Southwest of the 19th century. The policy of its pastoral theme, centered on certain rights of French peasants to use the lands belonging to the nobles, resonates with the historical conflicts in this hemisphere. Silvain was a favorite of Marie-Antoinette and one of Grétry’s most popular early operas. It was also the first opera to be performed in New Orleans in 1796. The production features the Lafayette Opera Orchestra conducted by artistic director Ryan Brown and is conducted by young Mexican filmmaker Tania Hernandez Velasco, with costumes from Missy West and lighting and projection design by Josh higgason. In the cast are Sophia Burgos (Hélène), Victor Sicard (Dolmon, elder son, under the name of Silvain), Samantha Louis-Jean (Pauline), Teresa castillo (Lucette), Jehú Otero (Bazile) and Nathan Berg (Dolmon father). Sung in French, with dialogues in English and English surtitles

Spiritual Concert in the Caribbean

Pedro Memelsdorff, whose research focuses on music in the French colonies of the Caribbean, designed a program of French music performed between 1760 and 1790. The musical life of the colonies involved slave peoples, formerly slaves and free. The program addresses the extraordinarily complicated dynamic between the musical culture of imperial France and the peoples of the Caribbean. Well-known 18th century French composers and newly rediscovered works are represented in this orchestral concert with vocal soloists and ensemble. The cast includes Samantha Louis-Jean and Sophia Burgos (sopranos), Marketa Cukrova (mezzo-soprano), Jehú Otero (tenor), Victor Sicard (baritone), Jonathan Woody (bass-baritone), with the Opera Orchestra Lafayette led by Pedro Memelsdorff and lighting design by Josh higgason. Sung in Latin and French with English subtitles.

Marie-Antoinette’s Salon Musical

As befits a daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie Antoinette studied music and dance. After marrying the French dolphin in 1770 and becoming Queen of France in 1774, she became a patron of contemporary composers and performed frequently as a harpist in her own living room. This program brings the listener to Versailles to hear arias and chamber works by Gluck and two composers whose lives were intertwined with the French colonies, the Caribbean-born Knight of Saint George, and Phillip Hinner, a survivor. from the ill-fated Kourou colony in Guinea, among others. Sandrine Chatron, harp, creates a program comprising tenor Nicholas Phan and soprano Sophia Burgos, with violinist Jacob Ashworth and flautist Charles Brink. Sung in French with English surtitles.

A pre-performance discussion will take place one hour before each performance. Each of these programs is accompanied by in-person and online seminars, which will be announced in the New Year, as well as our popular Opera Starts with Oh! a series of educational courses created by Opéra Lafayette to introduce young audiences to the magic of opera.

Tickets can be purchased at www.operalafayette.org/calendar-full.