Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia - fully staged production

Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia - fully staged production

Conductor: Andriy Yurkevich

Performers:
Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara: Gábor Bretz
Lucrezia Borgia: Yolanda Auyanet
Maffio Orsini: Paola Gardina
Gennaro, a young Venetian nobleman: Stefan Pop

Featuring: Pannon Philharmonic

Creators:
Visual and set designer: Gergely Zöldy Z.
Costume designer: Mónika Szelei
Director: Ferenc Anger

Beautiful voices, magical melodies and a plot full of twists and turns and exciting endings: this is the world of the bel canto operas that flourished early in the 19th century. The three greatest composers involved in creating that repertoire were Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. Rossini is primarily appreciated for his comic operas, while the other two created many masterpieces of opera seria, the genre that developed as the descendant of serious opera, which included a number of pieces about historical subjects. The rare treat the Müpa Budapest audience will be hearing performed by a cast of international stars on this evening is one of these: Lucrezia Borgia.

On the topic of operas inspired by the dramas of Victor Hugo, we might also mention Verdi's Rigoletto and Ernani. It was the great French poet and writer's 1833 play Lucrèce Borgia, though, that Donizetti, a great figure of the bel canto era, used as a basis to write his opera Lucrezia Borgia, which received its première in the same year that Hugo's drama itself was first staged. Brimming with secrets and surprises, the plot evolves over the course of a prologue and two acts. For the Spanish soprano Yolanda Auyanet, who will be singing the title role, the Italian-language repertoire extends beyond Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti to also include Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Leoncavallo. Taking the stage in the role of the young Venetian nobleman Gennaro will be the Romanian tenor Stefan Pop, an authentic bel canto specialist who won Plácido Domingo's 2020 Operalia competition. They will be joined by the internationally acclaimed Hungarian bass Gábor Bretz and the Italian mezzo-soprano Paola Gardina. On the conductor's podium, we will have a familiar guest at Müpa Budapest, a specialist in bel canto opera who regularly accompanies Edita Gruberova: Andriy Yurkevich.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest