Eight years after the success of Les Indes galantes, conductor Leonardo García Alarcón returns to the Paris Opera with a gem: a score by Antonia Bembo, an 18^th century composer whose tumultuous life resembles a novel.

Fleeing a violent husband, this Venetian sought refuge at the court of Louis XIV, where she received the king’s protection. It was in France that she forged a personal style, straddling Italian and French culture, before composing her opera Ercole amante in 1707, based on the libretto previously used by her master Francesco Cavalli.

Never before staged in Europe, this Hercules in love, marked by harmonic originality and outstanding vocal virtuosity, is making its repertoire debut at the Paris Opera.

Netia Jones explores the baroque work, full of gods and supernatural elements, and reveals its modernity: that of a powerful but ageing man incapable of accepting a woman’s refusal to consent.