Photo essay: Cavalli's Pompeo Magno at the 2025 Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Nicolò Balducci (Sesto), Mariana Flores (Issicratea) - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Cavalli's opera Pompeo Magno (Pompey the Great) was premiered in Venice in 1666 at the teatro S. Salvatore. The work was dedicated to Madama Illustriss. D. Maria Mancini Colonna, Prencipessa Romana, Duchessa di Tagliacozzo, niece of Cardinal Mazarin, who had married Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna in 1661.

Whilst at the French court in her youth Maria Mancini had captured the heart (and more) of the young Louis XIV. He was genuinely in love with her, and wanted to marry her. She was willing to marry him, but the marriage was in direct opposition to the plans of both the king's mother and Marie's uncle and guardian, the Cardinal. So, in 1661 she was sent away from court to marry her Italian prince.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Cavaill's opera was performed again, in Bologna in 1692 under the title of Il pompeo. The work was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in 1975 under the musical direction of Denis Stevens, and opera has experienced a limited renaissance in recent years. The 2025 Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival presented the work under Leonardo García Alarcón’s musical direction with his Cappella Mediterranea in a production directed by Max Emanuel Cencic who also sang the title role with a cast including Mariana Flores (Issicratea), Nicolò Balducci (Sesto), Sophie Junker (Giulia), Valer Sabadus (Scipione Servilio), and Dominique Visse (Delfo).

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Max Emanuel Cencic, Marcel Beekman, Alois Mühlbacher, Valer Sabadus, Nicholas Scott - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Pompeo Magnuo is one of Cavalli’s final Venetian operas, coming toward the end of an extraordinarily prolific career during which he composed over 40 stage works at the rate of approximately one per year. The opera takes its historical inspiration from the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106-48 BCE), who formed the first triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Crassus. He is the Pompey who appears, only in death, in Handel's Giulio Cesare.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Sophie Junker (Giulia), Valer Sabadus (Servillio) - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

The plot ingeniously combines historical figures with fictional elements, creating a complex narrative of political intrigue, romantic entanglements, and personal vendettas. The opera follows the victorious return of Pompeo to Rome after his third military campaign, where he receives a hero’s welcome from Caesar and other dignitaries. Behind this public display of unity, a “secret war” of love, desire, treachery and jealousy unfolds at the Roman court.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

The performances in Bayreuth were filmed and along with other events at the festival, the opera is available in the media libraries of ARTE Concert and BR Klassik. Mezzo TV will air the festival in December 2025, with Medici.tv to follow starting in 2026.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno
Alois Mühlbacher (Farnace), Valerio Contaldo (Mitridate), Mariana Flores  (Issicratea)
Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025
(Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Leonardo García-Alarcón:
    Conductor and Harpsichord
Max Emanuel Cencic:
    Director
Helmut Stürmer:
    Stage Design
Corina Gramosteanu:
    Costume Design
Léo Petrequin:
    Light
Max Emanuel Cencic, Fabián Schofrin:
    Dramaturgy
Constantina Psoma:
    Director’s Assistant
Chiara d’Anna:
    Movement Coach

Max Emanuel Cencic: Pompeo Magno
Mariana Flores: Issicratea
Valerio Contaldo: Mitridate
Alois Mühlbacher: Amore / Farnace
Nicolò Balducci: Sesto
Sophie Junker: Giulia
Victor Sicard: Cesare
Nicholas Scott: Claudio
Valer Sabadus: Scipione Servilio
Jorge Navarro: Colorado Crasso
Dominique Visse: Delfo
Kacper Szelążek: Arpalia
Marcel Beekman: Atrea
Pierre Lenoir: Primo Prencipe / Genius
Angelo Kidoniefs: Secondo Prencipe
Ioannis Filias: Terzo Prencipe
Christos Christodoulou: Quarto Prencipe

Cappella Mediterranea