Soprano : Rachel WILLIS-SØRENSEN / Fausta
Tenor : Jean-François BORRAS / Lentulus
Mezzo-soprano : Julie ROBARD-GENDRE / Posthumia
Baritone : Tassis CHRISTOYANNIS / Fabius Maximus
Bass : Patrick BOLLEIRE / Lucius Cornelius (Le Souverain Pontife)
Baritone : Jérôme BOUTILLIER / Vestapor / Caïus / Un Vieillard
Soprano : Hélène CARPENTIER / Junia
Mezzo-soprano : Aliénor FEIX  / La Grande Vestale
Soprano : Clémence TILQUIN / Galla

Based on Alexandre Parodi’s Rome vaincue (Defeated Rome), Jules Massenet’s Roma bears more than a passing resemblance to a remake of Gaspare Spontini’s La Vestale. Hannibal has just defeated the Roman army, and the oracle attributes the defeat to a Vestal Virgin who has broken her sacred vows. Suspicion falls on Fausta, who is in love with the military tribune Lentulus. Found guilty, she is stabbed by her grandmother Posthumia, who seeks to spare her a horrific punishment. The subject greatly appealed to Massenet, who, in the final years of his life, developed a keen interest in antiquity. Henri Caïn fashioned from it a libretto of striking dramatic situations that led the composer toward a certain austerity, excluding all artifice. In the twilight of his life, Massenet produced a score of sobriety and gravity, whose passionate outbursts remain masterfully controlled and carefully structured. Suffering from illness during the winter of 1911–1912, Massenet followed the rehearsals organized in Paris by Raoul Gunsbourg by telephone. The same principal cast—Maria Kousnezoff (Fausta), Lucien Muratore (Lentulus), Lucy Arbell (Posthumia), and Francisque Delmas (Fabius Maximus)—appeared both at the world premiere in Monte Carlo on 17 February 1912 and at the Paris premiere at the Opéra on 24 April 1912. Massenet died less than four months later.

In collaboration with Palazzetto Bru Zane.