LA SONNAMBULA

In the organizer's words:

The Nightwalker

OPERA

Music by Vincenzo Bellini
Libretto by Felice Romani

A peaceful village idyll in the Swiss Alps: Amina, the beautiful foster daughter of the miller's wife Teresa, and the young, wealthy farmer Elvino want to get married. Elvino has broken off his existing engagement to the landlady Lisa especially for this purpose. Count Rodolfo, the son of the village's deceased feudal lord, hasreturned to the village incognito after a long absence and has taken up residence in Lisa's inn. He immediately begins to court Amina, which arouses Elvino's jealousy. When Amina is found asleep in Rodolfo's room the next morning, the village community is horrified and the wounded Elvino breaks off his relationship with Amina, despitehis fiancée's protestations of innocence. Only at the last moment can she convince Elvino of her fidelity ...

After Gioachino Rossini had stopped composing, Vincenzo Bellini had risen to become Italy's leading opera composer alongside Gaetano Donizetti. His opera "La sonnambula" ("The Nightwalker"), which premiered at the Teatro Carcano in Milan on March 6, 1831, was his greatest public success to date. The story of the beautiful sleepwalker Amina takes place musically in the seemingly endless flowing melodic arcs typical of Bellini's style, which have made the role a parade role for every lyric coloratura soprano. However, the libretto by Felice Romani depicts a superficially happy coexistence in a Swiss Alpine village, which for Bellini merely forms the backdrop to a story about the fragile abysses of human existence, the ambiguity of which is concealed behind the façade of the rural-pastoral plot elements.

Price information:

Ticket sales start: March 07 U30 tickets available