Benvenuto Cellini

Overview

With his affinity for the 16th-century sculptor Benvenuto Cellini's advocacy of artistic and personal freedom, Hector Berlioz went straight for the grand gesture with his first completed opera. Returning to it years after initial production debacles, Berlioz stated that he would 'never again find such verve and Cellinian impetuosity, nor such a variety of ideas.' The plot revolves around Cellini's wooing of Teresa, a match frustrated at every opportunity by his rival, the cowardly Fieramosca. Benvenuto Cellini is a pithy work combining romance, excitement, violence, comedy and spectacle; the perfect stage for Terry Gilliam's stylishly colorful and larger than life directing.

Cast

John Osborn

Benvenuto Cellini

Michèle Losier

Ascanio

Maurizio Muraro

Giacomo Balducci

N/A

Orlin Anastassov

Le Pape Clément VII

Laurent Naouri

Fieramosca

N/A

Mariangela Sicilia

Teresa

N/A

Nicky Spence

Francesco

N/A

Scott Conner

Bernardino

N/A

André Morsch

Pompeo

N/A

Marcel Beekman

Le Cabaratier

Mark Elder

Conductor