LAFAYETTE OPERA Presents:
Les Femmes Vengées

opéra-comique by Philidor and Sedaine

Friday, January 17, 2014, 7:30 p.m., The Kennedy Center Terrace Theater  

Thursday, January 23, 2014, following Così fan tutte,

Rose Theater, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center

Saturday, February 1, 2014, 9:00 p.m., Versailles

Sunday, February 2, 2014, 8:00 p.m., Versailles

Among the precedents for Mozart and Da Ponte’s final masterpiece, Così fan tutte, was Les Femmes Vengées (The Avenging Wives), a 1775 opéra-comique by Philidor and Sedaine. A mirror image of Così’s plot, Les Femmes Vengées continues the story of the four fickle lovers, but this time it’s the women who humorously uncover their husband’s infidelities.   

On January 16th and 17th, Opera Lafayette presents the American premiere of Les Femmes Vengées as a one-act opera at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace  

For performances in New York and Versailles, Opera Lafayette will reproduce the innovative set created for Les Femmes Vengées , and concieve and perform Cosi and Les Femmes with the same cast and set as a three-act opera with one continuous story line.  

Philidor and Sedaine’s Les Femmes Vengées appeared in Vienna in 1776, a year after its debut in Paris. Mozart’s Così fan tutte was performed in Paris and in French as an opéra-comique thoughout the latter half of the 19th century. Opera Lafayette presents Cosi in this French version to shed new light on a familiar work and to integrate it with one of its most successful forerunners. Les Femmes Vengées will be an American premiere.