The Enchanted Island

The Metropolitan Opera Live HD 2011
Devised and written by Jeremy Sams

Conductor: William Christie
Production: Phelim McDermott

Starring:
Joyce DiDonato
Danielle de Niese
David Daniels
Placido Domingo
Luca Pisaroni

“A Showcase for and a love letter to a century of amazing music” is how the creator of The Enchanted Island, Jeremy Sams, described this spectacular operatic pasticcio of music by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, Purcell and others. Premiered at the Metropolitan in New York on New Year’s Eve 2011, it stars Joyce DiDonato, David Daniels, Danielle de Niese and Placido Domingo, and is conducted by William Christie. With a story based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it was not the work of a contemporary composer, but instead, drew on works by figures of the Baroque era Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, Purcell, Campra, Ferrandini, Leclair and Rebel. Devised by the British writer, librettist and translator, Jeremy Sams, the piece revived the 18th century tradition of the plasticcio, taking arias from a variety of different sources and setting them to a new libretto.

2012

“Bluffant, d’une rare efficacité, tant musicale que théâtrale, au carrefour de Broadway, Drottningholm et Covent Garden. Le public s’amuse beaucoup. La distribution est proprement éblouissante, chaque chanteurfaisant en outre des prouesses dans les styles les plus divers. La palme revient à Joyce DiDonato qui en Sycorax, la mère du monstre Caliban, passe du contralto abyssal (Handel)… au «basdessus»dramatique (imprécations de la Circé de Leclair)” ~ Denis Morrier Diapason