Programme:
Rameau, Monteverdi, Pergolesi, Lully, Vivaldi

Opera was born in Italy, and the domination of the Italian opera style in almost all parts of Europe began in the Baroque era. Everyone was interested in Italian composers, musicians, and especially singers. Superstar divas and castrates moved from one country to another, from one court to another, and from one opera theatre to another. Paris put up the hardest fight against the onslaught of Italian music theatre. It was a political and patriotic cultural opposition.
The performance of Pergolesi’s opera, “The Maid Turned Mistress”, in the middle of the eighteenth century launched an irreconcilable war in Paris between the supporters of the French and Italian opera styles, in which everyone had to choose one side or the other.