Dimitri

Victorin Joncières is the epitome of the Romantic artist who, throughout his life, relentlessly overcame the barriers that were set in his path. He never took the easy way out by composing commercial music; he never held an academic or official position. Dimitri, his masterpiece of 1876, reminds us that he was a contemporary of Gounod and also a champion of Wagner. This opera carries on the tradition (begun by Meyerbeer) of spectacular, monumental works. It takes the listener from a monastery near the River Don to a palace in Krakow, and to the castle of Wyksa, then Red Square in Moscow. At that time, Bayreuth, Orange and Béziers were about to turn opera into a popular art with mass appeal.