A Summer of Baroque Opera (2/7)

“Artaserse” by Leonardo Vinci: an opera brought back to life

Max Emanuel Cencic, Philippe Jaroussky, and Franco Fagioli brought “Artaserse” by Leonardo Vinci back to life, turning it into a landmark opera event with its 2012 revival.

16 July 2026

Rediscovered in 2012 at the Opéra national de Lorraine, Leonardo Vinci’s Artaserse established itself as one of the landmark events in the recent Baroque revival. Led by Max Emanuel Cenčić and Parnassus Arts Productions, this sumptuous production by Silviu Purcărete brings together a cast that has since become legendary: Philippe Jaroussky, Franco Fagioli, Valer Sabadus, Yuriy Mynenko, Juan Sancho and Cenčić himself, under the direction of Diego Fasolis with Concerto Köln.

First performed in Rome in 1730, Artaserse was Vinci’s final opera and the first setting of Metastasio’s famous libretto, later taken up by many eighteenth-century composers. Because women were forbidden to appear on Roman stages, the female roles were then sung by men. The Nancy production takes up this principle by bringing together five high male voices, in a fascinating interplay of virtuosity, cross-dressing and theatrical passion.

Between court intrigue, betrayed loyalties and family conflict, Artaserse unfolds all the tension of Neapolitan opera seria. Silviu Purcărete’s staging reveals its artifice, violence and brilliance, while Diego Fasolis’s conducting restores the score’s dramatic nervous energy. More than an exhumed curiosity, this Artaserse has become a reference point: the spectacular return of a forgotten masterpiece.

Programme

Leonardo Vinci: Artaserse
Dramma per musica in three acts
Libretto by Pietro Metastasio
First performed in Rome, Teatro delle Dame, 4 February 1730

Conductor: Diego Fasolis
Director: Silviu Purcărete
Orchestra: Concerto Köln

Cast: