For this year's Wexford Festival Opera, watch L'Aube rouge by Camille Erlanger from Wexford Opera House above.
The Synopsis: In a wartime, L'Aube rouge may look as a provocative title. Yet, no title seems to be more apt than this in the description of a strong woman who finds herself having to face the weight of an entire revolution almost alone, in the Russian nation as in her family.
The plot might recall to your mind that of Romeo and Juliet: the two scions of two warring families love each other in spite of conventions and political hatreds. In Ernager's opera we don't have two families, but two opposing factions: Olga is the daughter of the general who ordered the massacre of the people in revolt, while the student Serge belongs to those nihilists who fight the system with attacks. A very modern subject even for the time: Erlanger was accused of having abandoned his musical style to tackle a musically realist and violent score. We leave the final judgment to you: in any case, you will see an opera whose subject is still innovative today.
The inevitable love story (what opera could do without love?) takes place in a very unusual landscape for the operatic scene. In Russia, at the beginning of the 19th century, the population lives in extreme poverty. All gasps of revolt are drowned in blood. Nihilists rebels dream of freedom and of a better future. Starting with Olga who, born into a reactionary military family, wants to join the armed struggle to fight against the unfair treatment of the people. And in doing so she swears eternal love to Serge.
Unfortunately, as Romeo and Juliet teach us, starcrossed lovers will not have an easy life. Indeed, the 'grim reaper' awaits both at the end of the opera.
The Creative Team
Ella Marchment | Director
Guillaume Tourniaire | Conductor
The Cast
Andreea Soare | Olga
Andrew Morstein | Serge
Emma Jüngling | Natacha, Soeur Therese
Ava Dodd | Sonia
Dominica Williams | La Comtesse, Soeur Marthe
Giorgi Manoshvili | Kouraguine
Philippe-Nicolas Martin | Pierre de Ruys
Rory Musgrave | Le Grand Duc Grégorieff
Thomas Birch | Vassili, Un Chanteur Napolitain
Sung in French with English surtitles
Find out more about Wexford Festival Opera 2023 here.
