Antonio Salieri - TARARE | Deutsche Händel-Solisten (Schwetzinger Festspiele 1988 - ENG & ITA SUB)

Tarare is an opéra (tragédie lyrique) composed by Antonio Salieri to a French libretto by Pierre Beaumarchais. Audio in French with English and Italian subtitles (click on CC).

The Opera was first performed by the Paris Opera at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin on 8 June 1787. Salieri also reworked the material into an Italian version retitled Axur, re d'Ormus with libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, which opened in Vienna in January 1788.

Musically, Tarare fits into the style of eighteenth-century tragedie lyrique, with extensive use of choirs and ballets, but is characterized by the elimination of closed pieces, an expedient with which Salieri tried to adhere to the vision of Beaumarchais, who believed the text should prevail over the music.

A few months after the Parisian premiere, at the request of the Austrian Emperor Joseph II, Salieri, with the help of the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, transformed Tarare into a new opera with an Italian libretto, Axur, Re d'Ormus, which premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 8 January 1788. In the modern era, Tarare was revived at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1988 and in Strasbourg in 1991.

The story takes place in the palace of Atar, in the temple of Brama and in the square of the city of Ormus, in Asia, near the Persian Gulf. The opera opens with a prologue in the tradition of Lully: part spectacle, part allegory. Nature and the Spirit of Fire assign roles to the spirits of unborn humanity: haughty grandeur to Atar, humble poverty to Tarare. Forty years pass. Tarare has become head of the army after saving Atar from drowning; the people love him for his goodness. The sultan, however, hates the general, as Justinian hated Belisarius, and Louis XVI envied La Fayette; and plots to destroy him.

Cast & Characters:
Tarare - Howard Crook
Atar - Jean-Philippe Lafont
Spinette - Anna Caleb
Calpigi - Eberhard Lorenz
Altamort - Hannu Niemelä
Artenee - Nicolas Rivenq
Urson - Jean Francois Gardeil
Astasie - Zehava Gal
The Genie of Fire - Klaus Kirchner

German Handel soloists
Conductor : Jean-Claude Malgoire
Director/Choreographer : Heinz Balthes