My Year of Living Dangerously: 4 Rossini Operas

It is an experience to play 4 different Rossini operas in one season. Marie talks about the four different productions that Ensemble Matheus played this season throughout Europe on historical instruments - and what the culture of theater life was like in Rossini's 19th century Italy when these works were first performed.

She talks about how Rossini was the first superstar composer and how he was at the center of the chaos and excitement of 19th century theater life. That adrenaline rush is still quite prevalent in his works, and easily becomes part of the lives of performers of his music even today, 200 years later.

With Cecilia Bartoli and casts of today's best opera stars, Ensemble Matheus and conductor, Jean-Christophe Spinosi played Rossini in the Théâtre du Châtelet and Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, in Dortmund, Beaune, and the Haus für Mozart and Grossesfestspielhaus in Salzburg.