Dangerous Liaisons

OPERA2DAY and the Nederlandse Bachvereniging present a brand-new baroque opera, with music by Antonio Vivaldi. The Venetian composer's fiery and virtuoso opera music is making a true come-back. In the show Vivaldi's most thrilling arias are combined in a new libretto. They tell an equally thrilling story, based on the illustrious epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont play a dangerous game with love. The former lovers trump one another with sensual cruelties. They dare each other to seduce others. Their relationship is challenged when Valmont seems to fall for the charming but virtuous Présidente de Tourvel. In the vicious battle that follows all those involved are eventually ruined. A fatal love story as well as a portrait of an era in which a jaded élite collapses under its own intrigues.

The fierce emotions resonate in Vivaldi's vocal and instrumental fireworks, performed by a sparkling international cast and the top musicians of the Bachvereniging. With newly composed recitatives the work is welded into a whole. OPERA2DAY used this process successfully before in La troupe d'Orphée, proclaimed Opera of the year in 2014, and later in Dr. Miracle's last illusion: 'spectacular' according to leading newspaper de Volkskrant, 'a hit' according to Theaterkrant. OPERA2DAY's recent Hamlet (awarded ***** by Theaterkrant and 58% of the audience) was a dazzling homage to a repertoire seldom performed. OPERA2DAY now presents a successor: a contemporary Vivaldi!

The composition is made possible thanks to The Eduard van Beinum Foundation