“Caligula” comes to www.medici.tv on February 8
Caligula, a ballet choreographed by Nicolas Le Riche – the former principal dancer, or “étoile,” of the Paris Opera Ballet – will be the first dance work to receive a live webcast at www.medici.tv when it debuts on Tuesday, February 8 at 6:30pm GMT. The webcast will be available in the U.S. via delayed streaming on February 9, after which it will be available at www.medici.tv for viewing on demand until May 8. The performance by the Paris Opera Ballet, featuring the charismatic Stéphane Bullion in the title role, will take place in Paris’s Palais Garnier, where Caligula opened on January 31 and is slated to run through February 24. Inspired by the life of the notorious Roman emperor, Caligula is set to the music of Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
First performed in 2005, Caligula is Le Riche’s first choreography for the Paris Opera Ballet. Intrigued by the complex and troubling personality of the Roman emperor, the choreographer evokes the torments of a frail man capable of loving the moon and idolizing his horse, a man impassioned by theater and constantly playing a role himself. Constructed as a tragedy, the choreography follows the inexorable progression of this solitary hero towards death. Accompanied by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which illustrates the irremediable passage of time, the dance, in all its depth and energy, translates the poetry and the violence inherent in a life consumed at lightning speed by excess.
CALIGULA: Stéphane Bullion
LUNE: Clairemarie Osta
MNESTER: Nicolas Paul
CHAEREA: Aurelien Houette
INCITATUS: Mathias Heymann
CAESONIA: Eleonora Abbagnato
Choreography by Nicolas Le Riche
Dramaturgy by Guillaume Gallienne
Paris Opera Orchestra conducted by Frédéric Laroque
Some additional ballet content on www.medici.tv (requires subscription):
An hour-long documentary about “Maya Plisetskaya: Diva of Dance”
A half-hour documentary on Marcia Haydée’s choreography for Giselle
Behind the scenes documentary at Stuttgart Ballet’s production of On Your Toes
About www.medici.tv
Since its official launch in May 2008, www.medici.tv has gained international recognition, bringing together a community of music and arts lovers from 208 countries, who have watched more than seven million videos to date. The site currently averages more than 50,000 individual visitors each month.
Building on the success of webcasts from the Verbier Festival in 2007, www.medici.tv has since offered high-definition webcasts from many other leading festivals, including Aix-en-Provence, Saint-Denis, Aspen, Glyndebourne, and Lucerne, as well as from such music venues as the Opéra National de Paris, Auditorium du Louvre, Cité de la Musique, and Salle Pleyel in Paris, and Milan’s famed La Scala. Many operas and concerts performed by the world’s top-flight artists and orchestras have been webcast both as live events and later as video-on-demand (VOD) – all available for free. The list of artists who have been seen and heard at www.medici.tv is a “who’s who” of today’s stars, including Claudio Abbado, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Plácido Domingo, Gustavo Dudamel, John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, Anna Netrebko, Maurizio Pollini, Thomas Quasthoff, and Simon Rattle. Among the featured orchestras are such ensembles as the Berlin Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
As well as its webcasts of more than 80 live concerts each year, in partnerships with the world’s top artists and music institutions, www.medici.tv also offers subscriptions giving music-lovers the opportunity to watch more than 600 VOD programs – increasing to 1,000 programs over the next two years – including concerts, operas, recitals, documentaries, master classes, artist portraits, and archive material. Featured artists include legendary musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Maria Callas, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Glenn Gould, Herbert von Karajan, Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Artur Rubinstein, and Georg Solti, as well as leading film directors such as Bruno Monsaingeon, Paul Smaczny, and Frank Scheffer.
www.medici.tv subscriptions start at $10 per month and $99 for a year.
Some concerts to watch again, free of charge, at www.medici.tv
Marking the twin occasions of the 150th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s birth and the centenary of his death, as well as Christoph Eschenbach’s 70th birthday, www.medici.tv’s Mahler cycle features Eschenbach, one of the world’s pre-eminent Mahler conductors, leading the Orchestre de Paris in performances recorded over the past three seasons. From the hushed and portentous sounds of nature that open the First Symphony, to the heart-wrenching leave-taking in the finale of the Ninth, Eschenbach’s Mahler cycle is an unforgettable musical and spiritual journey. Mahler’s Nine Symphonies are available for streaming at www.medici.tv, as well as at www.christoph-eschenbach.com and www.orchestredeparis.com, until June 2011.
Daniel Harding conducts Filarmonica della Scala in Strauss’s symphonic poem, An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64, at La Scala (www.medici.tv/ – /movie/14679).
Daniel Harding conducts soprano Manuela Bisceglie and Filarmonica della Scala in Dallapiccola’s Ulisse, Suite A, at La Scala (www.medici.tv/ – /movie/14676).
Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Smetana’s Má vlast, at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw (www.medici.tv/ – /movie/14211).
The Borodin Quartet plays Shostakovich’s String Quartets Nos. 1, 3, and 7 at Paris’s Cité de la Musique (www.medici.tv/ – /movie/14673).
Joshua Bell plays Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with Vladimir Jurowski conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, on a program with Schubert’s Overture in the Italian Style and Symphony No. 3, and Glinka’s Valse-Fantaisie (www.medici.tv/ – /movie/14550).
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