Caligula – Ballet in 5 acts (Music by Antonio Vivaldi, Choreography by Nicolas Le Riche)

Live recording from the Palais Garnier, Opéra national de Paris
Story by Nicolas Le Riche and Guillaume Gallienne
Music by Antonio Vivaldi (The Four Seasons) 和
Louis Dandrel (electro-acoustic creation)

Stéphane Bullion – Caligula, Emperor of Rome
Clairemarie Osta – The moon, Caligula’s vision
Nicolas Paul – Mnester, Pantomime
Aurélien Houette – Charea, Senator
Mathias Heymann – Incitatus, Caligula’s horse
Eleonora Abbagnato – Caesonia, Caligula’s wife

The Paris Opera Corps de Ballet
Brigitte Lefèvre – director of dance
Orchestra of Paris Opera (Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris)
Philippe Jordan – musical director
Frédéric Laroque – conductor and violin solo

Nicolas Le Riche – choreography
Guillaume Gallienne – dramaturgy
Daniel Jeanneteau – scenography
Raymonde Couvreu – 视频
Olivier Bériot – costumes
Dominique Bruguière – 灯光
Philippe Béziat

First performed in 2005, “Caligula” is Étoile Dancer Nicolas Le Riche’s first choreography for the Paris Opera Ballet. Intrigued by the complex and troubling personality of the Roman emperor, the choreographer evokes the torments of a frail man capable of loving the moon and idolizing his horse, a man impassioned by theatre and constantly playing a role himself.
Constructed as a tragedy, the choreography follows the inexorable progression of this solitary hero towards death. Accompanied by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which illustrates the irremediable passage of time, the dance, in all its depth and energy, translates the poetry
and the violence inherent in a life consumed at lightning speed by excess.