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Details
Cadogan Hall
5 Sloane Terrace
Sloane Square, Belgravia
London
SW1X 9DQ
England
Programme
Jules Massenet – Thaïs
Performers
Stephen Higgins – Conductor
Natasha Jouhl – soprano
Nico Darmanin – Tenor
Michel De Souza – baritone
Chelsea Opera Group Chorus
Chelsea Opera Group Orchestra
Programme Note
Chelsea Opera Group present a concert performance of Massenet’s Thaïs (1894), at the Cadogan Hall, Saturday 23rd June 2018, conducted by Stephen Higgins with Natasha Jouhl in the title role.
One of Massenet’s most popular operas, Thaïs was first performed in 1894, two years after Werther. Set in Alexandria in the 4th century AD, it tells the story of Thaïs, a courtesan, and Athanaël, a monk who converts her to the Christian faith but cannot prevent himself from becoming enslaved by her beauty. While she ultimately achieves salvation, he falls prey to his growing lust for the woman.
The Meditation, the violin solo which depicts Thaïs’s awakening faith, is one of the most famous of operatic excerpts, but the whole score shows Massenet at his best. The arias for Thaïs are brilliant and seductive and the confrontations between Thaïs and Athanaël have music of great beauty and emotional power. Although Massenet composed Thaïs for the Paris Opéra, where spectacle was often the order of the day, he wisely concentrated on the inner lives of the two lead roles. The result is an opera as seductive as its heroine, a fascinating story of two people locked in an opposing yet parallel metamorphosis. This mature, intriguing score combines virtuous and erotic motifs, they intertwine and in so doing, underline a story which is at once disturbing and hopeless.
Conductor Stephen Higgins makes his debut with Chelsea Opera Group, and has worked extensively in major opera houses and festivals both in the UK and abroad. Stephen has conducted ‘Magic Flute’ for ENO, ‘L’Elisir d’amore’ for Opera Holland Park, Don Giovanni for the Porto festival, and ‘La Boheme’, ‘Hansel and Gretel’, Magic Flute’ for young singers’ company, Co-opera-co.
