Benvenuto Cellini

Berlioz’s opera about the legendary hot-blooded Florentine sculptor and goldsmith is a rarity. But under James Levine’s masterful conducting the huge and complex score dazzles like one of Cellini’s artworks. Marcello Giordani is Benventuo Cellini, who must finish a statue of Perseus for Pope Clement (Robert Lloyd) by nightfall or be hanged as a murderer and rapist. Against all the odds, including the conniving of his vicious rival Fieramosca (Peter Coleman-Wright), Cellini’s artistry triumphs, and he can finally be with the woman he loves, Teresa (Isabel Bayrakdarian).