Elisabetta Martorana

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.

After a supernatural prophecy and at the urging of his wife, a Scottish lord kills the king and claims the throne. Fearful of being found out, he leads a reign of terror against his people. Shakespeare’s plays provided Verdi with lifelong inspiration, and Macbeth was the first that he adapted for the operatic stage. Teatro la Fenice opens its 2018/19 season with this new production, directed by Venice’s own Damiano Michieletto, who creates a dreamlike world full of imagination and hallucinations.

Rarely has a production of Verdi’s Otello been staged in such a prestigious location: the courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice! This special outdoor “event production” of the Teatro La Fenice takes place amidst genuine late-Gothic and Renaissance architecture highlighted by spectacular projections: “A set of singular fascination” (Il Corriere Musicale). Critics were full of praise for the musical performance, designating conductor Myung-Whun Chung as the “absolutely dominating force” of the performance (GB Opera). The lead role is sung by Gregory Kunde, who successfully interpreted both Verdi’s and Rossini’s Otello in one year, perhaps the first tenor ever to do so. He “reproduces every accent, every colour demanded by Verdi with sensibility and intelligence” (OperaClick).