La Traviata

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

La traviata is Verdi’s most popular opera and one of the best loved of all stage works. Romance, tragedy and unforgettable tunes – this opera has it all. But modern audiences have largely lost sight of the fact that its plot was altogether unprecedented at the time of the work’s composition: with the tale of a highclass prostitute dying of consumption, Verdi raised his fondness for daring subjects to a whole new level.

Un ballo in maschera

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

In 1792 King Gustaf III of Sweden was shot at a masked ball, and this was the starting point for Verdi’s

Un ballo in maschera. But before the opera could be performed in Rome in 1859, the composer had to deal with a whole series of problems with the censor. It was only when the action was moved to Boston and all reference to real-life figures removed that the work could be launched on its triumphant career.

Bregenz Festival 2019: Rigoletto

Bregenz Festival staged for the first time Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpiece Rigoletto – compelling, blood-curdling and beautiful. The stage and film director Philipp Stölzl (Medicus & Goethe), known for his successful productions in Salzburg as well as for his music videos for Madonna or for the German band Rammstein, created a spectacular setting on the world’s largest stage on a lake, praised by critics as a unique technological masterpiece. The staggering show has attracted not only 200,000 visitors to 20 sold out performances but also close to 2 million TV-viewers in Germany, Austria and Swiss alone. “This Rigoletto on Lake Constance becomes a Hollywood spectacle.” (Handelsblatt); “The performance of the three main characters has been outstanding.” (Der Standard)

Verdi, La Traviata

This production from the sumptuous Teatro San Carlo in Naples has two elements that make it different from all Traviatas prdocutions before: It is performed in the full length as Verdi wrote it. Phenomenal young conductor Michele Mariotti disregards the traditional cuts and plays entire work, which allows for better understanding of protagonists’ motivations. Italo-Turk stage director Ferzan Özpetek makes a minor change in the second act, with a major impact: Germont père was once a client of Violetta’s. This casts her relationship with Germont fils in a new light and adds more drama to the narrative. The stage design by Dante Ferretti, winner of three Academy Awards for The Aviator, Sweeney Todd and Hugo, is quoted as “a visually opulent yet strictly conservative affair” (Financial Times).