Huw Montague Rendall

Roméo et Juliette (Opéra Bastille)

Count Almaviva lives with his Countess on their estate near Seville. The Count has his eye on his wife’s maid Susanna, who is betrothed to the Count’s servant, Figaro. Much to Figaro’s dismay, the Count plans to seduce Susanna on wedding night. Meanwhile, Cherubino, the Count’s young page, is infatuated with the Countess, but has just been dismissed after being discovered with Barbarina, the gardener Antonio’s daughter.

A study of a man's physical and mental limitations. In the 24 quite harsh and grueling fragments of the unfinished drama, a body and a mind are tested as far as they can be pushed before their owner goes over the edge. Is there just one thing that proves to be too much for Franz Woyzeck, or is it an accumulation of miseries and torments of a wretched existence? Woyzeck is perhaps not so much a bleak account of how miserable life can be as how much strength is required to deal with the daily vicissitudes of life and how delicate and fragile a balance the human psyche rests on.

A staging of Richard Strauss' opera "Ariadne auf Naxos" by Katie Mitchell. Recorded at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.