Opera National de Paris tickets 21 September 2025 - Ariodante | GoComGo.com

Ariodante

Opera National de Paris, Palais Garnier, Paris, France
All photos (6)
Select date and time
2 PM
From
US$ 142

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Paris, France
Starts at: 14:00
Acts: 3
Intervals: 2
Duration: 3h 55min
Sung in: Italian
Titles in: French,English

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast
Performers
Soprano: Sabine Devieilhe (Dalinda)
Conductor: Raphaël Pichon
Mezzo-Soprano: Cecilia Molinari (Ariodante)
Choir: Choir of the Opéra national de Paris
Countertenor: Christophe Dumaux (Polinesso)
Tenor: Enrico Casari (Odoardo)
Soprano: Jacquelyn Stucker (Ginevra)
Orchestra: Pygmalion
Tenor: Rupert Charlesworth (Lurcanio)
Creators
Composer: George Frideric Handel
Librettist: Antonio Salvi
Director: Robert Carsen
Overview

A connoisseur of the Baroque repertoire, Robert Carsen explores the characters’ psychology and reflects on power with a host of kilts, Celtic dances and nods to the current British royal family.

How sweet life could be at the Scottish court! The king’s daughter, Ginevra, and Prince Ariodante love each other. Their marriage is soon to be celebrated. But this is without taking into account Polinesso’s diabolical plan. Thirsting for desire and power, he accuses the young woman of infidelity to tarnish her reputation and eliminate his rival.

Inspired by an episode from Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, George Frideric Handel created this opera seria at Covent Garden in 1735, brimming with sumptuous arias such as the famous lamento “Scherza infida”.

If Handel were alive today, he would be termed resilient. In 1734‑1735, when the public had cooled towards him and his contract with the King’s Theatre drew to a close, the composer began to write Ariodante, an “opera seria” intended for the opening of the brand new Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. As if galvanised by adversity, he produced a radiant work, as virtuoso as the libretto, drawn from an episode of Arioste’s Orlando Furioso, is simple: Ginevra, a Scottish princess, is in love with Ariodante to whom she is betrothed, but a conspiracy led by the traitor Polinesso results in her being accused of infidelity. As well as giving us Handel’s most beautiful lament, this inspired score abounds throughout in virtuoso arias and breathes theatrical intelligence.

Coproduction with the Metropolitan Opera, New-York

History
Premiere of this production: 18 January 1735, Covent Garden Theatre, London

Ariodante is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The anonymous Italian libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, which in turn was adapted from Canti 4, 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Each act contains opportunities for dance, originally composed for dancer Marie Sallé and her company.

Synopsis

Medieval Scotland. Ginevra, daughter of the King, is in love with and betrothed to Prince Ariodante. She rejects the amorous advances of the Duke of Albany, Polinesso, who then cruelly tricks Ariodante and Ginevra's father into believing that Ginevra has been unfaithful. Ariodante attempts suicide and Ginevra is condemned, but after a challenge to a duel by Lurcanio, Ariodante's brother, the dying Polinesso admits his plot and the lovers are reunited.

Act 1

Princess Ginevra, in front of her mirror, is adorning herself to make herself beautiful for her beloved. (Aria:Vezze, lusinghe). Polinesso, Duke of Albany, bursts into the room and, thinking that having the king's daughter as his sweetheart would advance his prospects, declares his love for her. Ginevra indignantly rejects him (Aria:Orrida a gl'occhi miei) and leaves. Dalinda, who is secretly in love with Polinesso, advises him that his rival is Prince Ariodante but also advises him that all he has to do is open his eyes to see someone else who loves him (Aria:Apri le luci). Left alone, Polinesso can see that Dalinda is in love with him and plans to use her to thwart his rival and win Ginevra for himself (Aria: Coperta la frode).

The royal gardens

Ariodante sings of how all nature speaks to him of love (Aria:Quì d'amor). Ginevra joins him and they pledge their love (Duet: Prendi, prendi da questa mano). The King joins the lovers, gives them his blessing, and orders his courtier Odoardo to make the preparations for the wedding (Aria: Voli colla sua tromba). Alone, Ariodante swears to be faithful to Ginevra (Aria:Con l'ali di costanza). Polinesso hatches his plot – he tells Dalinda that if she will dress as Ginevra that evening and invite him into her apartments, he will be hers (Aria:Spero per voi). Lurcanio, Ariodante's brother, then appears to Dalinda and declares his love for her (Aria:Del mio sol vezzosi rai) but she has totally lost her heart to Polinesso (Aria:Il primo ardor).

A delightful valley

Ariodante and Ginevra enjoy the beauties of nature and each other's company (Duet: Se rinasce nel mio cor). They are joined by shepherds and shepherdesses (Duet with chorus:Si godete al vostro amor) who dance to entertain them (Ballet).

Act 2

Polinesso and Ariodante meet; Polinesso feigns astonishment when Ariodante tells him he is betrothed to Ginevra, insisting that Ginevra loves him. Ariodante refuses to believe it. This is all being observed by Lurcanio, who is hidden. Polinesso tells Ariodante to watch as "Ginevra", really Dalinda wearing Ginevra's clothes, admits Polinesso into her bedroom for the night. Ariodante is in despair and wants to die (Aria:Tu preparati a morire) but Lurcanio comes from the shadows and advises Ariodante to live, and seek revenge (Aria:Tu vivi). Ariodante sadly bewails his beloved's (supposed) infidelity (Aria:Scherza infida). As day breaks, Polinesso and Dalinda emerge from the palace. Polinesso promises he will reward her, to her delight (Aria:Se tanto piace al cor) and, alone, Polinesso exults in how well his plot is proceeding (Aria:Se l'inganno).

A gallery in the palace

As the King is making the final arrangements for his daughter's wedding, the courtier Odoardo brings him bad news – Ariodante has been seen committing suicide by leaping into the sea. The King is heartbroken (Aria:Invida sorte avara). Ginevra appears, having a premonition of some approaching calamity (Aria:Mi palpita il core). When her father gives her the terrible news, she swoons and is carried away. Lurcanio now appears before the King, who attempts to comfort him on the loss of his brother. The furious Lurcanio, however, hands the King a letter telling him he saw Ginevra admit Polinesso into her bedroom for the night, which caused his brother to kill himself, and Lurcanio now is bent on revenge (Aria:Il tuo sangue). The King disowns his daughter and condemns her as a harlot. When Ginevra hears this, she collapses into delirium (Aria:Il mio crudel martoro) and all Dalinda's attempts to console her fail. Ginevra falls into a fitful, disturbed sleep (Ballet of Good and Bad Dreams). She awakes in distress (Recitativo accompagnato:Che vidi? oh Dei! misera me!)

Act 3

A wood near the sea

Ariodante survived, and he now bitterly rebukes the gods for condemning him to live (Arioso:Numi! lasciarmi vivere). Hearing cries, Ariodante finds Dalinda, who is being held by thugs hired by Polinesso, with orders to kill her, as she is the only witness to his plot to discredit Ginevra. Ariodante drives Polinesso's henchmen away, and Dalinda reveals the truth to him – it was she, disguised as Ginevra, who let Polinesso into her bedroom. Ariodante rails against the treachery that caused him to doubt his beloved (Aria:Cieca notte). Alone, Dalinda expresses her remorse (Aria:Neghittosi or voi che fate?).

The royal gardens

The King announces that he will never see his daughter again unless a champion appears to defend her honour. Polinesso steps forward and offers to challenge Lurcanio to a duel (Aria:Dover, giustizia, amor). Ginevra, condemned to death for sexual irregularity, appears before her father begging to be allowed to kiss his hand (Aria:Io ti bacio). Her father clasps her to her bosom, saying that a champion has appeared to defend her – Polinesso. She does not like this idea, but he insists (Aria:Al sen ti stringo e parto). Ginevra prefers death to the loss of her honour (Aria:Sì, morrò). Lurcanio again offers his love to Dalinda, and she indicates that she is now inclined to accept it (Duet: Dite spera, e son contento).

The duelling ground, the King on his throne

Polinesso and Lurcanio fight, Lurcanio mortally wounds Polinesso who is carried away by Odaordo. A new champion appears with his visor down. He reveals himself as Ariodante, to the astonishment of all, and declares Ginevra innocent. Dalinda admits her part in the plot. Odoardo returns with the news that Polinesso, as he died, also admitted his guilt. The King pardons Dalinda and goes to find his daughter. Ariodante jubilantly hails a new bright day dawning after nights of darkness (Aria:Dopo notte).

The room where Ginevra is imprisoned

Ginevra looks death in the face (Arioso:Manca, oh Dei!). But her father and the others appear and declare her vindicated. She is reunited with her beloved Ariodante (Duet:Bramo aver mille vite).

The great hall of the palace. A large staircase supported by columns; on the upper part of the stairs musicians playing wind instruments. The King, Lords and Ladies descend the staircase. He begins the chorus, as the Lords and Ladies dance.

Ogn'uno acclami bella virtute (Chorus) ... Ballo (Gavotte—Rondeau—Bourrée) ... Sa trionfar ognor virtute in ogni cor (Chorus).

Venue Info

Opera National de Paris - Paris
Location   Palais Garnier: Place de l’Opéra, 75009 Paris; Opéra Bastille: Place de la Bastille, 75012 Paris

The Paris Opera is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra, and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the Académie Royale de Musique, but continued to be known more simply as the Opéra. Classical ballet as it is known today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral and important part of the company. Currently called the Opéra National de Paris, it mainly produces operas at its modern 2700-seat theatre Opéra Bastille which opened in 1989, and ballets and some classical operas at the older 1970-seat Palais Garnier which opened in 1875. Small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille.

The company's annual budget is in the order of 200 million euros, of which 100 million come from the French state and 70 million from box office receipts. With this money, the company runs the two houses and supports a large permanent staff, which includes the orchestra of 170, a chorus of 110 and the corps de ballet of 150.

Each year, the Opéra presents about 380 performances of opera, ballet and other concerts, to a total audience of about 800,000 people (of whom 17% come from abroad), which is a very good average seat occupancy rate of 94%. In the 2012/13 season, the Opéra presented 18 opera titles (two in a double bill), 13 ballets, 5 symphonic concerts and two vocal recitals, plus 15 other programmes. The company's training bodies are also active, with 7 concerts from the Atelier Lyrique and 4 programmes from the École de Danse.

The Opera under Louis XIV
Pierre Perrin

The poet Pierre Perrin began thinking and writing about the possibility of French opera in 1655, more than a decade before the official founding of the Paris Opera as an institution. He believed that the prevailing opinion of the time that the French language was fundamentally unmusical was completely incorrect. Seventeenth-century France offered Perrin essentially two types of organization for realizing his vision: a royal academy or a public theater. In 1666 he proposed to the minister Colbert that "the king decree 'the establishment of an Academy of Poetry and Music' whose goal would be to synthesize the French language and French music into an entirely new lyric form."

Even though Perrin's original concept was of an academy devoted to discussions of French opera, the king's intention was in fact a unique hybrid of royal academy and public theatre, with an emphasis on the latter as an institution for performance. On 28 June 1669, Louis XIV signed the Privilège accordé au Sieur Perrin pour l'établissement d'une Académie d'Opéra en musique, & Vers François (Privilege granted to Sir Perrin for the establishment of an Academy of Opera in music, & French Verse). The wording of the privilège, based in part on Perrin's own writings, gave him the exclusive right for 12 years to found anywhere in France academies of opera dedicated to the performance of opera in French. He was free to select business partners of his choice and to set the price of tickets. No one was to have the right of free entry including members of the royal court, and no one else could set up a similar institution. Although it was to be a public theatre, it retained its status as royal academy in which the authority of the king as the primary stakeholder was decisive. The monopoly, originally intended to protect the enterprise from competition during its formative phase, was renewed for subsequent recipients of the privilege up to the early French Revolution. As Victoria Johnson points out, "the Opera was an organization by nature so luxurious and expensive in its productions that its very survival depended on financial protection and privilege."

Perrin converted the Bouteille tennis court, located on the Rue des Fossés de Nesles (now 42 Rue Mazarine), into a rectangular facility with provisions for stage machinery and scenery changes and a capacity of about 1200 spectators. His first opera Pomone with music by Robert Cambert opened on 3 March 1671 and ran for 146 performances. A second work, Les peines et les plaisirs de l'amour, with a libretto by Gabriel Gilbert and music by Cambert, was performed in 1672.

Jean-Baptiste Lully

Despite this early success, Cambert and two other associates did not hesitate to swindle Perrin, who was imprisoned for debt and forced to concede his privilege on 13 March 1672 to the surintendant of the king's music Jean-Baptiste Lully. The institution was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique and came to be known in France simply as the Opéra. Within one month Lully had convinced the king to expand the privilege by restricting the French and Italian comedians to using two singers rather than six, and six instrumentalists, rather than twelve. Because of legal difficulties Lully could not use the Salle de la Bouteille, and a new theatre was built by Carlo Vigarani at the Bel-Air tennis court on the Rue de Vaugirard.[9] Later, Lully and his successors bitterly negotiated the concession of the privilege, in whole or in part, from the entrepreneurs in the provinces: in 1684 Pierre Gautier bought the authorisation to open a music academy in Marseille, then the towns of Lyon, Rouen, Lille and Bordeaux followed suit in the following years. During Lully's tenure, the only works performed were his own. The first productions were the pastorale Les fêtes de l'Amour et de Bacchus (November 1672) and his first tragedie lyrique called Cadmus et Hermione (27 April 1673).

After Molière's death in 1673, his troupe merged with the players at the Théâtre du Marais to form the Théâtre Guénégaud (at the same theatre that had been used by the Académie d'Opéra), and no longer needed the theatre built by Richelieu at his residence the Palais-Royal, near the Louvre. (In 1680 the troupe at the Guénégaud merged again with the players from the Hôtel de Bourgogne forming the Comédie-Française.) Richelieu's theatre had been designed by Jacques Le Mercier and had opened in 1641, and unlike the huge theatre at the Tuileries Palace, which could accommodate 6,000 to 8,000 spectators, was of a size consistent with good acoustics. Lully greatly desired a better theatre and persuaded the king to let him use the one at the Palais-Royal free of charge. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal had been altered in 1660 and 1671, but Lully, with 3,000 livres received from the king, had further changes made by Vigarani in 1674.

The first production in the new theatre was Alceste on 19 January 1674. The opera was bitterly attacked by those enraged at the restrictions that Lully had caused to be placed on the French and Italian comedians. To mitigate the damage, Louis XIV arranged for new works to be premiered at the court, usually at the Chateau Vieux of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This had the further advantage of subsidizing the cost of rehearsals, as well as most of the machinery, sets, and costumes, which were donated to the Opéra for use in Paris. During Lully's time at the Opéra, performances were given all year, except for three weeks at Easter. Regular performances were on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The premieres presented at court were usually during Carnival and were moved to the Palais-Royal after Easter, where the openings were on Thursdays. About two to three new works were mounted each year. In all, thirteen of Lully's tragédie en musique were performed there (see the list of compositions by Jean-Baptiste Lully).

After Lully

After Lully died (in 1687), the number of new works per year almost doubled, since his successors (Pascal Collasse, Henri Desmarets, André Campra, André Cardinal Destouches, and Marin Marais) had greater difficulty sustaining the interest of the public. Revivals of Lully's works were common. French composers at the Opéra generally wrote music to new librettos, which had to be approved by the directors of the company. The Italian practice of preparing new settings of existing librettos was considered controversial and did not become the norm in Paris until around 1760. One of the most important of the new works during this period was an opéra-ballet by Campra called L'Europe galante presented in 1697.

Ballet
In 1661 Louis XIV, who was a dancer himself and one of the great architects of baroque ballet (the art form which would one day evolve into classical ballet), established the Académie Royale de Danse, intended to codify court and character dances and to certify dance teachers by examination. From 1680 until Lully's death, it was under the direction of the great dancing master Pierre Beauchamp, the man who codified the five positions of the feet. When Lully took over the Opéra in 1672, he and Beauchamp made theatrical ballet an important part of the company's productions. The ballet of that time was merely an extension of the opera, having yet to evolve into an independent form of theatrical art. As it became more important, however, the dance component of the company began to be referred to as the Paris Opera Ballet. In 1713 an associated ballet school was opened, today known as the Paris Opera Ballet School. The Académie Royale de Danse remained separate, and with the fall of the monarchy in 1789 it disappeared.

The company's names after the Revolution

With the French Revolution and the founding of the Republic, the company changed names several times, dropping its association with the royal family (see the List of official company names for details), and in 1794, moved into the Théâtre National de la rue de la Loi (capacity 2800) where it took the name Théâtre des Arts. In 1797, it was renamed the Théâtre de la République et des Arts.

Napoleon took control of the company in 1802 and with the declaration of the French Empire in 1804, renamed the company the Académie Impériale de Musique. With the Restoration in 1814, the company was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique. It became part of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1816. In 1821, the company moved to the Salle Le Peletier, which had a capacity of 1900 spectators and where it remained until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873.

In the second half of the 19th century, with the ascension of Napoleon III in 1851, the name Académie Impériale de Musique was reinstated and after 1870 with the formation of the Third Republic, was changed to Théâtre National de l'Opéra.

In 1875, the institution occupied a new home, the Palais Garnier. Between 1908 and 1914 Henri Benjamin Rabaud conducted at Palais Garnier. Rabaud also composed several works which first premiered at Opéra-Comique, but were later also performed at Palais Garnier.

In 1939, the Opéra was merged with the Opéra-Comique and the company name became Réunion des Théâtres Lyriques Nationaux. The Opéra-Comique was closed in 1972 with the appointment of Rolf Liebermann as general administrator of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris (1973–1980), but in 1976, the Opéra-Comique was restored.

In 1990 the Opéra moved its primary venue to the new Opéra-Bastille, becoming the Opéra de Paris, although it continued to mount productions, primarily ballet, at the Palais Garnier; and the Opéra-Comique regained its autonomy. In 1994 the Opéra de Paris became the Opéra National de Paris. Regardless of all the changes in its "official" name, the company and its theatres were commonly referred to as the Opéra.

Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Paris, France
Starts at: 14:00
Acts: 3
Intervals: 2
Duration: 3h 55min
Sung in: Italian
Titles in: French,English
Top of page