Filmed for cinemas – William Christie conducting Les Arts Florissants in Handel’s Ariodante
Le Grand Rex in Paris will show a film of Handel’s Ariodante on Monday 30 June. This extraordinarily beautiful cinema, built almost a century ago and with a capacity of 2,700 seats, will project a performance of Ariodante with Les Arts Florissants conducted by its founder William Christie, which was filmed at the Philharmonie de Paris. Later it will be screened around France and beyond.
Unusually, it is not a cinema stream, but a concert filmed for the cinema in 4K with 7.1 sound. The director, Frédéric Savoir, has been working on a film on William Christie for the last few years: “Every concert of Les Arts Florissants is a unique moment of musical beauty and original interpretation. We have been following this ensemble for over four years. We’re still as enchanted, as delighted, as the first time we heard them. We wanted to share the magic of these experiences.”
The film will allow more people to share the magic, and refreshingly the editing is not frenetic, and although there are closeups, there are also tranquil long shots which linger for a while before leaping back into the midst of the passionate performers, never less than thrilling. As The Guardian wrote reviewing a Les Arts Florissants concert in London recently, “Breathtaking stuff, every single second of it.”
Ariodante is maybe Handel’s most accomplished opera with some of the composer’s greatest hits, so it is surprising that Christie only came to it in 2018, returning in 2023 when the Philharmonie performance was filmed.
The opera was first performed at Covent Garden in 1735. Its anonymous librettist was inspired by Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, and the story is set in medieval Scotland where the love affair between Ariodante and Ginevra “is thwarted by the dark scheming of Polinesso, but a final twist will save the hero from despair and blindness, in an unexpected ‘happy ending’…”
In the film, Lea Desandre is Prince Ariodante, Ana Maria Labin is Princess Ginevra, Hugh Cutting plays Polinesso (Ariodante’s rival) with Ana Vieira Leite (Dalinda), Renato Dolcini (the King of Scotland), Kresimer Spicer (Lurcanio, Ariodante’s brother), and Moritz Kallenberg (the King’s secretary).
Ariodante
Le Grand Rex – 1 Boulevard Poissonnière, 75002
Paris métro Bonne Nouvelle
Monday 30 June 7.30pm, tickets €16
Running time, 2h 35m (plus interval)
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
