Thr RBA concert on Tuesday lunchtime was a preview of Opera Atelier’s upcoming production of Charpentier’s David and Jonathan.  Besides the usual Opera Atelier chat there was some useful information on the piece and the production and some excerpts.

I guess the most interesting thing is that this is a transplant of the 2022 production in the Royal Chapel at Versailles so it’s not the usual OA design team.  Rather the set is by the Fontaine brothers and the costumes by Christian Lacroix.  The cast will also include two members of the 2022 cast; Antonin Rondepierre as Joabel and David Witzak as Saul.  They will be joined by the Mireilles Asselin and Lebel, Stephen Hegedus, Colin Ainsworth and Christopher Dunham.  In a sense that makes it a modern interpretation as originally it was an all male cast owing to it being written for a Jesuit college.  As Marshall Pynkowski rightly said, HIP is a starting point not a blueprint.

That it wasn’t designed as a court entertainment probably also explains why the Prologue, which we heard with Mireille Lebel as La Pythonisse, Stephen Hegedus as the ghost of Samuel and Christopher Dunham as Saul, is dramatic and relevant to the plot rather than being allegorical fluff sucking up to whichever Louis was around at the time.  In fact the whole opera seems rather more dramatic than the average tragédie lyrique of the period.  An extract from Act 3 rather confirmed this.

There was also a dance demonstration and some classy piano playing by Chris Bagan.

It’s playing at Koerner Hall on April 9tgh to 13th.

Photo credits: Karen E. Reeves.