{"id":12146,"date":"2025-05-09T18:35:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T16:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cappellamediterranea.com\/production\/bembo-ercole-amante\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T09:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:21:10","slug":"bembo-ercole-amante","status":"publish","type":"post-concert","link":"https:\/\/cappellamediterranea.com\/en\/production\/bembo-ercole-amante\/","title":{"rendered":"Bembo, Ercole Amante"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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” Not familiar with this opera by Antonia Bembo? No wonder: it’s never been performed, and its score sat untouched in the BNF until the Paris Opera entrusted it to conductor Leonardo Garc\u00eda-Alarc\u00f3n for its world premiere. <\/em> “<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eight years after the success of Les Indes galantes<\/em>, Leonardo Garc\u00eda-Alarc\u00f3n and Cappella Mediterranea return to the Op\u00e9ra de Paris<\/strong> with a nugget: a score by Antonia Bembo, an 18th<\/sup>-century composer whose tumultuous life resembles a novel. Fuyant un mari violent, cette V\u00e9nitienne trouve refuge \u00e0 la cour de Louis XIV, sous la protection du roi. En France, elle d\u00e9veloppe un style personnel, entre culture italienne et fran\u00e7aise, et compose en 1707 Ercole amante<\/em>, reprenant un livret jadis mis en musique par son ma\u00eetre Francesco Cavalli. Jamais encore mis en sc\u00e8ne, cet Hercule amoureux<\/em>, \u00e0 l\u2019harmonie originale et \u00e0 la grande virtuosit\u00e9 vocale, entre au r\u00e9pertoire de l\u2019Op\u00e9ra de Paris. Netia Jones s\u2019empare de cette \u0153uvre baroque peupl\u00e9e de dieux et d\u2019\u00e9l\u00e9ments surnaturels pour en r\u00e9v\u00e9ler la modernit\u00e9 : celle d\u2019un homme puissant, vieillissant, incapable d\u2019accepter le refus d\u2019une femme. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Synopsis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a wood, Hercules laments: having vanquished so many monsters, he is distraught over his love for Iole, fianc\u00e9e of his own son, Hyllus. Venus tries to help him by bewitching Iole, but Juno intervenes and, with the help of Sleep, plunges Hercules into a deep sleep. Iole moves in to kill him, but Hyllus stops her. Awakened, Hercules believes his son guilty of treason and wants to have him executed. He is appeased by the pleas of D\u00e9janire and, above all, Iole, who agrees to give herself to him. Hyllus is spared, but imprisoned, and D\u00e9janire forced into exile. Locked in a tower surrounded by waves, Hyllus, desperate to see Iole marry his father, tries to drown himself, but Juno saves him. As D\u00e9janire and Iole mourn their loss – one her son, the other her lover – page Lychas reminds D\u00e9janire of the existence of a tunic impregnated with the blood of the centaur Nessus, supposed to rekindle her husband’s love. Iole gives it to Hercules as a wedding present. As soon as he puts it on, it burns him horribly. Mad with grief, Hercules throws himself into the inferno. Dejanira mourns his death, Iole that of Hyllus… until the latter reappears, accompanied by Juno: she has saved the son from the waters and transported the father to heaven, now united with Beauty. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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