Caio Fabbricio in the Goethe Theater in Bad Lauchstädt, the 12th of June, 2022

The highlight of my trip was a true rarity (the opera had last been performed in the 18th century), Johann Adoph Hasse’s opera “Caio Fabbricio”, which was part of the Händel Festival and performed in the Goethe Theater in Bad Lauchstädt. The opening of the theatre was in 1802 organized by Goethe himself. The theatre had been renovated rather recently and it was absolutely charming.  The floors (including the stage floor) were raked, there were benches (and I really mean benches, not seats) in the audience and a lot of woodwork. Even the ventilation worked well despite the weather being almost 30 degrees.  

The story of the opera is rather typical for a baroque opera, which is messed up, but I will try to give here some kind of idea of the main events. King Pyrrhus has won a battle against the Romans and taken prisoners. One of the prisoners is the daughter of Caio Fabbricio’s (Gaius Fabricius Luscinus) daughter Sestia, with whom Pyrrhus falls in love. Caio Fabriccio comes to negotiate about peace with Rome and tells his daughter to commit a suicide, because she has lost her honour when she has become a slave. Sestia is ready to do that, since she thinks her fiancé Volusius has been killed in a battle. He, of course, hasn’t died, but comes to Sestia and they flee together. Caio Fabbricio catches her daughter and returns her to Pyrrhus. Volusius is also caught and sentenced to death. At the same time a conspiracy is detected and Pyrrhus grants amnesty to Volusius, releases all Roman prisoners and starts to warm up his relationship with his ex-fiancée Bircenna.

Being a great fan of baroque opera, I was really looking forward to this performance and I wasn’t disappointed. The music of the opera (in practise aria after aria interrupted with just a few other lines) was almost without exception inspiring and the singers (again almost without exception) were good. Almost all the roles were sung by women, since two out of four of the male roles were sung by women and the third by a countertenor. So, there was only one low male voice in the opera, which worked well.

I especially loved the singer Fanny Lustaud, who sang the role of Pyrrhus. She was a good singer, but I truly liked her performance. She had obviously gone to great lengths to learn how men move and gesture. Excellent work!  

The set design (Moritz Weisskopf and Jeannine Cleemen) was sparse, but it worked beautifully in a theatre, where baroque style setting of back sheets and side columns was used. And the costume design (Marie Hardner) was excellent. Not quite the Roman era, but hinting at that in a good way that fitted the performance just as it should.