Dresden, 23 February 2023. Almost 170 years after its German premiere in Dresden and exactly 130 years after its last performance in the city’s opera house, »La sonnambula« can once again be enjoyed in a new production on the Semperoper stage. Making his house debut, Italian conductor Evelino Pidò, an expert in the historically-informed performance of bel canto opera, will ascend the Staatskapelle podium to interpret Vincenzo Bellini’s brilliant score, which features large-scale choruses and thrilling coloratura passages. With Emily Pogorelc as the sleepwalking Amina, Maxim Mironov in his role debut as the besotted Elvino and for the first time in Germany Rosalia Cid in her house and role debut as Lisa as well as Georg Zeppenfeld and Nicole Chirka in the other main roles, the audience can look forward to a scintillating premiere on 19 March 2023.
In his production of Vincenzo Bellini’s multifaceted masterpiece, Rolando Villazón will once again demonstrate to Semperoper audiences his talent for bringing to operatic works profound psycho-logical insights and emotional nuances that reflect our current social ills. His staging of Rameau’s »Platée«, which premiered in Dresden in April 2019, displayed a carefully calibrated balance of comedy and tragedy. In the upcoming production, Villazón spotlights the lurking resentments of a close-knit farming community, whose staunch conservatism is a source of superstition and repression. The eerily beautiful love story about the sleepwalking Amina and her jealous lover Elvino is, at heart, the tale of a spirited woman’s struggle to break free of the constraints of a hidebound society to determine the course of her life.
For Dresden, Rolando Villazón has further developed his staging of the work, which is a co-production between the Dresden Semperoper, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Metropolitan Opera and the Opéra de Nice Côte d’Azur. Following the Dresden premiere on 19 March 2023, the work will be performed in New York in November 2023. The scenery has been designed by the multi prize-winning Johannes Leiacker, who recently received the Semperoper Foundation Prize for his work in stage and costume design. Here he envisions a remote, walled-in rural community amidst the vastness of an Alpine landscape. The costumes have been designed by Brigitte Reiffens-tuel, an artist who has also received international acclaim for her work.
»La sonnambula« by Vincenzo Bellini
Staging: Rolando Villazón
With Emily Pogorelc, Nicole Chirka, Rosalia Cid, Maxim Mironov and Georg Zeppenfeld.
The Dresden Staatskapelle will be conducted by Evelino Pidó.
Also on stage: the Saxon State Opera Chorus.
A co-production of the Semperoper Dresden with the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Metropoli-tan Opera and the Opéra de Nice Côte d’Azur.
Generously supported by the Semperoper Foundation.
Premiere at 6 pm on Sunday, 19 March 2023.
Additional performances on 22 March, 21 & 23 April as well as 1 & 5 May 2023.
Tickets for all performances available online or from the Schinkelwache box office on Theaterplatz (T +49 (0)351 4911 705).
Requests for review tickets (stating the editorial brief and likely publication dates) should be sent to: presse@semperoper.de
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Photo: Premiere motif of »La sonnambula« © Rosemarie Trockel, Courtesy Sprüth Magers, VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2022
The motif is part of the artistic concept for the premiere posters 2022/23 with a series of works by Rosemarie Trockel.