Atys

Description

When Atys is performed for the first time before the court in 1676, Lully is at the height of his triumph: his lyric tragedy becomes “the King’s opera” because the monarch held its quality in such high esteem. The harmonies unfold here to embody human passions and divine wills, guiding the amorous impulses of the young Atys and the wounded fury of the goddess Cybele. With Atys, Lully makes love the thread running through the drama, weaving around this sovereign passion a drama in which the stirrings of the heart, celestial jealousies, and human flaws intertwine to seal the heroes’ fate. Leonardo García-Alarcón conducts this new version with exquisite finesse, sublimating Lully’s music to draw souls into an enchanting dream.