Benvenuto Cellini, Op. 23

Composer: Berlioz, Hector

Librettist/Text Author: Wailly, Leon de

Conductor: Gergiev, Valery

Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Chorus: Vienna State Opera Chorus

Chorus Master: Schuller, Andreas

Ascanio: Aldrich, Kate

Benvenuto Cellini: Fritz, Burkhard

Bernardino: Tagliavini, Roberto

Fieramosca: Naouri, Laurent

Francesco: Mas, Xavier

Giacomo Balducci: Sherratt, Brindley

Pompeo: Plachetka, Adam

Pope Clement VII: Petrenko, Mikhail

Publican: Park, Sung-Keun

Teresa: Kovalevska, Maija

Set Designer: Stolzl, Philipp

Costume Designer: Maurer, Kathi

Lighting Designer: Schuler, Duane

Stage Director: Stolzl, Philipp

Television Director: Morell, Andreas

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Date of Production: 2007

Festival: Salzburg Festival

Venue: Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg

Playing Time: 02:30:00

Catalogue Number: A04001504

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"A mix of futurism a la Metropolis, fantasy a la Batman and quotes from Piranesi's Carceri, juxtaposed in the form of photo montages, enhanced with... robots, a helicopter, a shark and the winged vehicle of a pop star Pope," effuses critic Marianne Zelger-Vogt (Neue Zurcher Zeitung). The object of her rapture is not a Broadway musical but a French opera written in the 1830s, Hector Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini. The absence of the work in the operatic repertoire is certainly due in part to its musical excesses: the work is so complex, richly detailed and prolifically imaginative that Berlioz's contemporaries considered it unplayable and unsingable.

This is resoundingly proven false in the 2007 Salzburg Festival production of director Philipp Stolzl, conductor Valery Gergiev (The wild man of music) and a high-caliber cast accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic and its chorus. Stolzl, above all, has poured his experience as director of music videos, commercials and films into this project, termed "science fiction for Grand Opera" (Suddeutsche Zeitung), "breathtaking" (Der Standard), and "spectacularly successful" (F.A.Z.)

Berlioz hips the action forward by disguising his hero, the celebrated goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), as a monk and having him attempt to elope with Teresa, the daughter of the papal treasurer, during the night of the carnival. In the turmoil, a man is killed. Cellini is accused of murder and can only be saved if he finishes a statue for the Pope within a few hours. In a prodigious effort, he melts all his other works to have enough metal and completes the statue – saving his life and winning the hand of Teresa.