May at the Deutsche Oper Berlin is marked by Giuseppe Verdi. From 3 to 27 May we will show sixteen performances of Verdi operas: RIGOLETTO (3, 7, 11, 17 May), EIN MASKENBALL (6, 10.May 13), THE TROUBADOUR (May 9, 12), LA TRAVIATA (May 16, 19), DON CARLO (May 18, 21, 27) and NABUCCO (May 20, 24). This will be accompanied by a concert with excerpts from OTELLO, SIMON BOCCANEGRA and LUISA MILLER, presented by Angela Gheorghiu and Saimir Pirgu.
The Verdi Days at the Deutsche Oper Berlin offer the opportunity to experience six of the most popular works in scale productions with outstanding Verdi interpreters of our time: What this music of extremes sounds like today is shown by singers like Ildebrando d’Arcangelo (as Philip II. / DON CARLO) and Anja Harteros (as Elisabeth von Valois / DON CARLO and as Amelia / EIN MASKENBALL), Željko Lučić (NABUCCO), Anita Rachvelishvili (DER TROUBADOUR), Simon Keenlyside and Markus Brück (RIGOLETTO).
No other composer has devoted himself so obsessively to the dark side of humanity as Giuseppe Verdi: whether RIGOLETTO or DER TROUBADOUR, DON CARLO or EIN MASKENBALL, he almost always shows how hatred, jealousy and greed for power lead to destruction. And Verdi’s evil always has a political dimension – be it directly in the form of the religious terror regime of the Spanish Inquisition, which persecutes Prince Don Carlo, or also in the attempt of court jester Rigoletto, condemned to failure, to preserve his own family happiness within a morally bankrupt system. And with the exception of the early masterpiece NABUCCO, in which the reconciliation of two very different peoples succeeds, evil retains the upper hand with Verdi, happiness remains a utopia whose music is too beautiful to come true.
Each generation has different images for this never-ending battle of good against evil – this is another reason why Verdi’s operas are not only open to the most diverse scenic interpretations, but also demand them. But Verdi is not only the composer of extreme feelings, but also the composer of extreme demands. Rigoletto, the Leonora in TROUBADOUR or Philipp II in DON CARLO are still one of the greatest challenges for each of their performers, requiring beauty of voice, intensity of expression and technical mastery at the same time. The Verdi days are an ideal opportunity to experience this in a wide range of ways.
MARIA STUARDA by Gaetano Donizetti. Concert performances
Diana Damrau was last acclaimed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in a concert with works by Giacomo Meyerbeer. Now she returns as Maria Stuarda in Donizetti’s masterpiece.
That an opera was banned because it was too effective could not surprise anyone in the years of the “Risorgimento”, the Italian independence movement in the first half of the 19th century. Gaetano Donizetti was unlucky in this respect; his MARIA STUARDA had a particularly hard time. The Queen of both Sicilies, Maria Christina of Naples, is said to have been so agitated during a preview during the confessional scene at the end of the last act that she fainted. The work was then banned without further ado. Even if the story of powerlessness was just a legend, the explosive nature of the plot did not stop there. A queen who is executed at the end was not a suitable opera heroine according to official reading.
Towards the end of the 1950s, MARIA STUARDA was rediscovered and recognized for what it is: a masterpiece of bel canto and a highlight for every Donizetti lover. After singers such as Joan Sutherland, Montserrat Caballé and most recently – also at the Deutsche Oper Berlin – Joyce DiDonato now introduces Diana Damrau, one of the great bel canto prima donnas of our day, her portrait of the unhappy ruler. On 28 and 31 May, Jana Kurucová, Nicolas Testé and Javier Camarena will be at her side.