Rebirth of an Opera: Persée in the Court of Atelier is a two-hour performance documentary I directed for CBC’s Opening Night Series in 2004. The film features scenes from an Opera Atelier performance of Lully’s Persée during its run at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre, intercut with rehearsals, interviews with baroque scholars and the artists of the company, and footage in Versailles where the opera was last performed in the late 18th century at the wedding of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
I directed the opera from my prepared shots in the score as a live cut, seven-camera production with
no camera rehearsal in the budget. The complete opera became a separate film broadcast by Bravo Canada and a DVD in worldwide distribution. The demo offers excerpts from the Opening Night version.