Rubens Pelizzari

A murderer against his will: Having killed his wife in a fit of jealousy Il Bravo now has to do penance – as an assassin. Saverio Mercadante’s adventure opera was a great success at its premiere in 1839 and apparently made a lasting impression on the young Giuseppe Verdi. Already famed for rescuing works from oblivion, the Wexford Festival now brings Il bravo back into the limelight. Il Bravo, the assassin, prowls the streets of Venice at night. A long time ago, he killed his wife in a crime passionnel, whereupon the Council of Ten, the most important executive body of the Republic of Venice, made him their secret assassin. And just to make sure Il Bravo does their bidding, they hold his father hostage. Everything changes when the banished patrician Pisani makes advances on the fair Violetta, whom Il Bravo has been charged with protecting. And who is the mysterious courtesan Teodora?

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Jerusalem mourns its defeat, which places its fate in the hands of Nabucco, King of Babylon. Ismaël warns them that Nabucco is approaching the Temple. He remains alone with Ferena, the daughter of the Babylonian king, who has been taken hostage by the Hebrews, and confesses his love for her. However, Ferena's sister, Abigaille, also loves Ismael. In this new production, Arnaud Bernard sets the plot in the aesthetic context of the Italian Risorgimento. When it premiered at La Scala in Milan in 1842, Nabucco was an immediate triumph. In an Italy then in the throes of nationalist movements, the audience immediately identified with the Hebrews held captive in Babylon. The chorus of slaves, "Va, pensiero," thus became one of the most famous arias in the history of opera.

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A spectacular production of Aida filmed at Bregenz Festival's lakeside stage in 2009, with Carlo Rizzi conducting the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra and the Polish Radio Choir.

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Puccini was always adamant in his preference for all three of the one-act operas that comprise Il trittico to be performed together. That’s how they are in this 2007 Modena production. From the start he had recognized the essential synergy of the brilliant contrasts of melodrama, sentiment and comedy when the trio is presented as an entity across a single evening. Many producers, daunted by a very long evening, made even longer by extended intervals necessary for the changing of very different sets, have been tempted into splitting and pairing them with other short operas. In this Modena production Amarilli Nizza appears in all three operas; as the faithless wife Giorgetta in Il tabarro, as Suor Angelica and as Gianni Schicchi’s daughter Lauretta. Alberto Mastromarino is the jealous husband, Michele in Il tabarro and as Gianni Schicchi.

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