Opéra Comique

The struggle between Béatrice and Bénédict offers Shakespeare’s contemporaries a cheerful version of the fight between Tancrède and Clorinde unto death, written by Le Tasse and set to music by Monteverdi. The irreconcilable lovers are torn apart just as the Baroque individual is. But the 17th century also produced the antidote for its tragic conscience by means of farcical interludes. The first of its genre, La Fiera di Farfa calls to mind one of those fairs in which dramatic parody emerged. In it, the Combattimento rings unexpectedly!