Tenor Sergey Romanovsky will feature in a production of the “lost opera” Frédégonde, a “Drame lyrice” in five acts by Ernest Guiraud and Camille Saint-Saëns with Paul Dukas (orchestration) after a libretto by Louis Gallet. The text is based on Augustin Thierry's Récits des temps mérovingiens (Tales from the times of the Merovingians).
The production is intended as a mix between live performance and silent movie, in which two queens, Brunhilda and Frédégonde, first ladies of their respective feuding families look back on their lives. Brunhilda is waging a bitter war against her brother-in-law Hilpéric and his wife Frédégonde. When Hilpéric ambushes and overpowers her, he orders his son Mérowig (Sergey Romanovsky) to banish her to a secluded nunnery. But charmed by her, he refuses his father.
When Ernest Guiraud died in 1892, only the first three acts of the opera were finished. The later two were added by his close friend Camille Saint-Saëns, whose work on it came to a close in 1895. The finished product is a lively testimony to the musical versatility of the late 19th Century.
The opening night of the production on the 20 November 2021, 7:30 CET is available to watch as a free live stream here.
Further performance dates at Theater Dortmund, Germany are 7, 22 May 2022
