After focusing on Neapolitan opera, the Bayreuth Baroque Festival is staging Cavalli’s Pompeo Magno (1666). “I want to showcase the full richness of Venetian musical theatre,” says its artistic director, Max Emanuel Cenčić. 
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Countertenor Max Emanuel Cenčić has been artistic director of the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival since its founding in 2020. For the 2025 edition, which opens on September 4 at the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth, he is setting a new course with a Venetian opera: Pompeo Magno by Francesco Cavalli—after having successfully programmed, and staged, Neapolitan opera seria by Leonardo Vinci and Porpora in the festival’s early years. Here is an interview.
Bayreuth Baroque has strongly focused on the Neapolitan operatic repertoire during its first five years of existence. Why choose now a Venetian opera by Cavalli?
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