The Italian composer Gaspare Spontini launched his career in France in 1803 and had soon won the patronage of the country's leading luminaries, including Napoleon himself and Empress Josephine. He composed his first French grand opera, La vestale, for the Opéra de Paris, and although the directors initially loathed Spontini’s colourful orchestration, grandiose melodies and novel harmonies, the opera enjoyed a huge success at its 1807 Paris premiere and soon gained so much popularity that it eventually formed what is to this day considered one of French opera's most important links between the work of Gluck and Meyerbeer.

Featuring the Miskolc Simphonic Orchestra