Berlioz – Beatrice and Benedict (based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing)
Sung and spoken in English

Beatrice and Benedict are both determined to stay single. Beatrice is a woman who despises men (especially Benedict) and Benedict can’t abide women (particularly Beatrice). That is until their friends plot to bring them together and they both ‘accidentally’ overhear whispers of each other’s unrequited passion; the spark of love is ignited by gossip and quickly becomes a blazing wildfire.

Berlioz’s final opera sets to music the wild and illogical whirlwind of falling in love, bringing a rich warmth of invention to Shakespeare that virtually no other composer has achieved. Indeed, Berlioz’s life-long passion for Shakespeare is evident throughout his miraculous score, radiant with love and sparkling with energy, and including the famous central nocturne duet, perhaps the most beautiful thing Berlioz ever wrote.

Berlioz – Beatrice and Benedict (yn seiliedig ar Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare)
Cenir yn Saesneg

Mae Beatrice a Benedict ill dau yn benderfynol o aros yn sengl. Mae Beatrice yn fenyw sy’n casáu dynion (yn enwedig Benedict) ac ni all Benedict oddef merched (yn enwedig Beatrice). Hynny yw, nes bod eu ffrindiau’n cynllwynio i ddod â nhw at ei gilydd a’r ddau, yn ‘ddamweiniol’, yn gorglywed sibrydion am angerdd y naill at y llall; mae gwreichion cariad yn cael eu tanio gan glecs ac yn datblygu’n gyflym yn dân gwyllt tanbaid.
Mae angerdd oes Berlioz dros Shakespeare yn amlwg drwy gydol ei sgôr wyrthiol, yn pelydru gyda chariad ac yn pefrio ag egni, ac yn cynnwys y ddeuawd nosol, ganolog enwog, y darn harddaf a ysgrifennodd Berlioz erioed efallai.