From http://www.theatrechampselysees.fr/opera/opera-en-concert-oratorio/cleopatre

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The creation of the Cleopatra Massenet took place February 23, 1914, a few months after the composer's death and almost one year to the day after that on the monegasque stage of the Penelope Fauré. Opera triumphed as early as 1916 in Chicago with Maria Kouznestsova in the title role and three years later, in New York this time, defended by the great Marie Garden.

The work nevertheless left the poster quickly and played the beautiful suffocate until its revival in 1990 in Saint-Etienne with Kathryn Harries. Montserrat Caballé gave him new life epic in 2004 at the Liceo in Barcelona and any recently, in the spring of 2013, Béatrice Uria-Monzon offered a powerfully sensual version at the Opéra de Marseille.

Woman of power and formidable seductress, Cleopatra has always fascinated. She was the inspiration for some 45 operas (the best known being that Handel devoted to his love with Jules César), more than 70 plays, 5 ballets, and 7 feature films (Elisabeth Taylor became the almost unsurpassed incarnation).

The work of Massenet is considered by many as the lyrical testament of the composer (as was also the) Penelope Fauré). We are here certainly away from the atmospheres of Manon or Werther but the book is not lacking in panache with its glitzy opening, its military marches up to the grand finale of the death of the heroine.

Opera is loud and clear its subtitle of "passionate drama" with its great moments of lyricism and drama, mainly embodied by the passionelle relationship Cleopatra vs Marc-Antoine. Michel Plasson, meanwhile, in connoisseur of the french operatic repertoire, should inspire all his energy and his musical intelligence to serve this drama of love and power.