Venus and Adonis

The project began when Turroni, 59, a writer and former tenor, approached Sciarrino with a draft libretto based on a version of the Venus and Adonis myth by the Italian Baroque poet Giambattista Marino.

Delnon and his team have hung historical depictions of the Venus and Adonis myth in their rehearsal space at the State Opera, adapting the stylized gestures from the paintings to the stage.

Eighteen months after dispatching “Venus and Adonis” to Philip, Titian sent “Perseus and Andromeda.”

In the agreement hammered out with Philip, Titian made it clear he intended his “Danaë” to be paired with “Venus and Adonis.”

In “Venus and Adonis,” Titian switches his focus from the seductiveness of a woman’s body to the irresistible beauty of a young man.