Grétry's La Caravane du Caire
Marshall Pynkoski (stage director), Hervé Niquet (conductor) — With Hélène Guilmette (Zélime), Jean-Gabriel Saint-Martin (Husca & Florestan)...
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Cast
Marshall Pynkoski — Stage director
Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg — Choreographer
Antoine Fontaine — Stage design
Camille Assaf — Costumes
Hervé Gary — Lighting
Stéphane Le Bel — Lighting design assistant
Elisabeth Geiger — Singing master
Jean-Gabriel Saint-Martin — Husca & Florestan
Marie Perbost — Almaïde
Pierre Derhet — Saint-Phar
Enguerrand de Hys — Tamorin
Robert Gleadow — Osman Pacha
Lili Aymonino — French Slave
Chantal Santon Jeffery — Italian Slave
Lucie Edel — German Slave
Benoît Descamps — Osmin
Samuel Guibal — Furville
Program notes
While highly successful at the time of its premiere in 1783, André-Modeste Grétry's La Caravane du Caire has been little-performed in the intervening centuries. Lucky for us, this 2022 coproduction from the Tours Opera and the Opéra Royal de Versailles has brought the little-known gem back into the spotlight, thanks to a highly-skilled cast of dancers and singers, as well as a creative, sparkling staging from Marshall Pynkoski.
La Caravane du Caire is unique in its harmonious blend of French texts and Italian theater conventions: "No composer before Grétry has been able to so skillyfully adapt Italian melodies to the character and flair of the French language," wrote the revered German art critic Friedrich Melchior Grimm. This brilliant comic opera was also a breath of fresh air stylistically, enchanting audiences who had begun to grow weary of the tragédies lyriques in style at the time.
Photo © Marie Pétry
