Eliogabalo at Opéra National De Paris - Palais Garnier

"Eliogabalo is languorous, effeminate, lecherous, lascivious; watch, observe, may heaven preserve you."

Lenia, Acte I, scène 11


Violent, terrifying and fascinating, Caligula, Nero and Elagabalus led lives so short, ambivalent and cruel that they inspired numerous writers. “Anarchy, to the extent to which Elagabalus pushes it, is genuine poetry”, wrote Antonin Artaud, exalting a man’s battle against conventions and order. Cavalli’s last-known opera, dating from 1667, focuses on the perverse young emperor who neglected affairs of state in favour of sensual pleasures. Systematically overturning accepted morals, Elagabalus dresses men as women, and names women to the Senate, favours sinning servants and humiliates generals. Baroque and carnivalesque, Eliogabalo is not, however, an opera that advocates a return to order. Leonardo García Alarcón, a finder of baroque gems, and Thomas Jolly are careful not to transform Eliogabalo into a sublime icon who would abase virtue. On the contrary, the conductor and young director, who are presenting their first production for the Paris Opera, accept the character’s contradictions and ambiguities.