Composer: Cesti, Antonio (1623-1669)

Opera director András Almási-Toth’s whimsical updating of an early Baroque opera by Antonio Cesti switches the composer’s L'Orontea from 1656 to 2016.

Every early music festival these days needs one or more star countertenors in their programme. At this year’s Müpa Budapest’s Régizene Fesztival, Valer Barna-Sabadus was featured together with homegrown soprano Emöke Bárath.

A very naughty translation and some fine singing make for a delightfully comic evening of Cesti's recently rediscovered Orontea at Wigmore Hall. 

L'Orontea was premièred as turbulent Carneval entertainment in 1656. Now it is experiencing a fast-paced new staging as modern opera gag at Frankfurt Opera.

It has been five years since mezzo Joyce DiDonato last sang in Amsterdam. In those five years, she won an Emmy Award, headed the cast of countless productions at the Met and Covent Garden, and has been recognized as one of the greatest opera singers of our time by the press and aficionados alike.