Experience Baroque music by candlelight in Kasper Holten’s innovative production of Cavalli’s comic opera L'Ormindo, in collaboration with Shakespeare’s Globe.
Introduction
Princes Ormindo and Amidas have fallen in love with Erisbe, wife of the elderly King Ariadenus. Meanwhile Princess Sicle, Amidas’s spurned lover, plots to get Amidas back, enlisting her old nurse as an ally.
Background
Discover a rarely performed gem of the Baroque opera repertory in the intimate surroundings of the new theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe. L’Ormindo will be performed during the inaugural season of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – an exquisite, 350-seat venue, which will transport audiences back to the candlelit theatres of Shakespeare’s day.
Kasper Holten’s inventive new staging draws on the stagecraft and theatrical tricks of the 17th century to bring to life a comic tale of sex, disguise and deception. First performed in Venice in 1644, Francesco Cavalli's L’Ormindo follows the trials and tribulations of two pairs of lovers in the ancient kingdom of Mauretania. Conducted by Christian Curnyn, one of the most sought-after Baroque specialists working today, the opera’s mixture of lively comedy and sublime romance will make for an unforgettable evening.
