Synopsis
As in any good romantic comedy, Béatrice and Bénédict spend their time quarreling. In fact, they love to hate each other so much that they have become blind to their true feelings : to put it simply, they love one another. Their friends and family, not fooled for a second, hatch a plan that ends up making them realise what their hearts and heads have hidden from them until now.

A hymn to love
Béatrice et Bénédict is one of Berlioz’s strangest and most captivating scores, with a special place in the work of this prolific composer of the Symphonie Fantastique. This opéra comique, with its storyline worthy of a TV soap, was inspired by Shakespeare’s very popular and enjoyable romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing, here largely revised and condensed. Classic in structure, the work shines thanks to the composer's precision in the interplay between voice and instrument.
Although the opera had its first performance in 1862 in Baden Baden and was revised a year later, it was another 30 years before the work was complete in Berlioz’s mind ! The composer here gives the orchestra a leading role, using all its possibilities and nuances. Concise and clear, poetic and energetic, infinitely modern in its narration, there is no doubt that this hymn to love will show all its dramatic potential in this staging by the very imaginative Daniele Michieletto.

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New production
In partnership with the Royal Opera House Muscat, Oman