L’Avare

Ages 8 and up

A singing Harpagon: this is Gasparini’s L’Avare, an operatic take on Molière’s comedy. A streamlined version, too—three acts instead of five, and just four characters rather than a dozen. “A plague on avarice and all misers!”

A regular adapter of Molière, librettist Antonio Salvi crafts here an intermezzo, a form of opera originally designed to fill the intervals between acts of opera seria, and which soon evolved into a genre of its own: opera buffa. In contrast to its grander counterpart, the intermezzo is short, funny and popular. It revels in cross-dressing, gives free rein to mime, and freely borrows from popular songs of the day.

Directed by Théophile Gasselin, this production of L’Avare features Eva Zaïcik as Fiammetta and Victor Sicard as Pancrazio, both applauded by Dijon audiences in L’Uomo Femina in 2024. Meanwhile, Le Poème Harmonique and its music director Vincent Dumestre continue their artistic journey in Dijon, which began in 2022 with L’incoronazione di Poppea and has since taken in Carnaval baroque.

Libretto Antonio Salvi

Musical director Vincent Dumestre
Le Poème Harmonique

Staging Théophile Gasselin
Scenic design and staging assistant Louise Caron
Costumes Alain Blanchot
Lighting Christophe Naillet

Fiammetta and Fichetto Eva Zaïcik
Pancrazio Victor Sicard
Scarabea Serge Goubioud
Actor Stefano Amori

Production Le Poème Harmonique
New production of the Dijon Opera
Coproduction Rhine National Opera

^{Photo © Ph.Delval}