La forza del destino

TUTTO VERDI – this edition to mark the Verdi bicentenary sets standards by which all similar projects will be judged. It includes all twenty-six operas by the greatest Italian stage composer, together with his immortal Requiem, all of them in definitive performances. “This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

For La forza del destino, Verdi created one of his most famous melodies, the “fate” motif that permeates the whole of the score. Music and action alternate in masterly fashion between large-scale crowd scenes and intimate interiority, in that way illustrating Verdi’s real theme: the manner in which fallible human beings are destroyed by a cruel fate.

Puccini, La Bohème

For the first time in his career, Riccardo Chailly conducts an opera in Spain: “La Bohème” at the magnificent Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia. The striking result is a lively, colorful symphonic reading of the opera that turns the orchestra into one of the stars of the performance, on a par with the vocal soloists. Stage director Davide Livermore interprets the work with the help of large video projections of Impressionist paintings that harmonize with the period in which the action takes place. This co-production with the Philadelphia Opera features a cast of up-and-coming young singers (cf. Documentary “Riccardo Chailly – A Portrait” Prog. No. 9858).