Franco Piva - Cleopatra Opera Seria in Due Atti - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

First performed at the Teatro Regio, Turin, on 5 March 1876, Lauro Rossi' penultimate opera Cleopatra caught the public' attention in the wake of Verdi' Ai.

In 1735, Porpora challenged Handel in London with Polifemo, a work that still resonates today as a vibrant ode to triumphant love. On the bewitching shores of Sicily, Galatea falls in love with the mortal Acis. This pure passion arouses the fierce jealousy of the Cyclops Polifemo, whose rage threatens to sweep everything away. But the unexpected arrival of Ulysses and the intrigues hatched by Calypso weave a complex web where gods and mortals clash. Carried by a constellation of exceptional soloists and conducted by Stefan Plewniak, this opera masterfully weaves together the legacy of a baroque golden age and the timeless power of myth.

The Presses Universitaires de France and Frémeaux & Associés offer this biography of Cleopatra, by Christian-Georges Schwentzel, specialist in the Hellenistic and Roman Middle East. Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt (69-30 BC), is an exception in the history of mankind she is one of the few women to have achieved political power. According to ancient texts, it owes it's success to it's irresistible charm it seduces Julius Caesar then Marc Antoine, successive masters of the Roman world. But she is also a political leader who manages to conquer her subjects through daring economic reforms, in favor of the poorest, and through a religious ecumenism which leads her to present herself as a living goddess speaking to all peoples. Here, Christian-Georges Schwentzel deconstructs the fantasies she has been subjected to since Antiquity and tells us the story of the queen-goddess who won immortality by transforming herself into a myth.