THE LAST SORCERER (LE DERNIER SORCIER)
Friday, March 3, 2023
Venue
The Wallis - Bram Goldsmith Theater
9390 North Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills
After vanishing from the public eye for 150 years, the original 1867 manuscript of Pauline García Viardot’s Le Dernier Sorcier (The Last Sorcerer) was acquired by Harvard Library, which gave The Wallis’ Artist-in-Residence Camille Zamora permission to transcribe, publish, record, and perform the work, with her English-language narration punctuating the sung performance story-book-style. Pauline García Viardot wrote her masterwork salon opera, Le dernier sorcier (The last sorcerer), in 1867, centering themes of environmentalism and gender equality through a whimsical comic tale and poignant melodies. Written on a libretto by her lover, the great Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev, the work is a feminist eco-fable in operatic form and perfectly timed to kick off Women's History Month.