Mozart's LUCIO SILLA to Grace La Monnaie Stage This Autumn

If the decision to inaugurate the renovated theatre with a creation is quite a symbolic gesture for our house, the choice of the next production is also of emblematic importance. Thirty-two years after the legendary production of Patrice Chéreau, Lucio Silla finds its way to La Monnaie's stage again.

A new artistic team makes this comeback a promising endeavour. The German director Tobias Kratzer is making his first contribution to La Monnaie, and the Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda will lead the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The maestro has already collaborated twice with our orchestra, for the Mozart/ Schubert concert Bella mia fiamma in April 2016, and for Janacek's opera FOXIE! The Cunning Little Vixen, presented in March of this year.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was still very young, barely sixteen years old, when he composed the opera seria Lucio Silla in 1772. He is, however, on his fifth opera. Much in the fashion of Metastasio, the libretto by Giovanni da Gamerra develops a historical subject inspired by the life of Silla, a cynical and unscrupulous Roman dictator. Silla tries to seduce Giunia, whose father he has killed and whose beloved, Cecilio, he has exiled. Nothing will make Giunia cede, who will only be saved from suicide by the return of Cecilio. Both are arrested, but their greatness of soul moved Silla to the point of forgiving them and abdicating power.

Although this outcome is rather naïve, the dramatic content is solid enough to offer Mozart a ground conducive to the expression of his maturing genius. He does not yet question the traditional laws of opera seria, but his daring modulations, refined orchestration, and fine expressions of the feelings depicted by the music open up unprecedented paths to the genre and strongly announce the creative power of his last masterpieces. With Mozart, the depth of emotion does not exclude lightness and grace, and his music carries us between the torments of souls - admirably rendered in the arias Pupille amate of Cecilio or Giuna's Fra i pensier - and the sweetness of love with that facility which remained his signature.

The director Tobias Kratzer does not interpret Lucio Silla through historicizing lenses. He rather seeks to make its topic and very specific form of opera seria more meaningful for a modern spectator. Transposed nowadays, the "powerful of the earth" no longer dwell in urban palaces near the Capitol, but in super-modern and super-protected villas on the edge of the city. Silla and his family live in a luxurious but cold environment, cut off from the reality of the outside world - an outside world constantly watched by multiple surveillance cameras. It is there that Giunia is locked up and her supposedly lost lover Cecilio tries to break in. The Roman tyrant seems to possess everything, money, power, and elegance. But behind the façade is a complex and troubling personality. He, who imposes his limits on all, tries to perpetually cross its own, until he reaches total incoherence and slowly slips into a state of confusion and paranoia. His whole entourage suffers the consequences - a spoiled, privileged entourage whose dark appetites corrupt what remains of its humanity. Aufidio, Silla's intimate friend and counsellor, is a mysterious and paradoxical presence.

The German director replaces a theatre of powdered wigs and neoclassical decor with a contemporary theatre of cinematographic nature. He feeds his interpretation with references to the genres of the thriller and horror, motivated by the many cemetery and 'ombra' scenes in the opera. The final turnaround will also remain unexpected, and, at the same time, will project us into the devastated mental landscape of Silla.

To fully create their musical and scenic vision of this masterpiece, the tandem Antonello Manacorda and Tobias Kratzer rely on an excellent cast of Mozart voices.
A moving Bajazet in Handel's Tamerlano in 2015, the English tenor Jeremy Ovenden will return to La Monnaie for the title role of Lucio Silla.

The Dutch soprano Lenneke Ruiten is familiar with the personage of Giunia, which she incarnated at Milan's La Scala. She was our guest at La Monnaie as Ophélie (Hamlet, Thomas) in 2013, in 2016 as Aspasia (Mitridate, Mozart) and in March 2017 as Foxie/Bystroushka in Janá?ek's FOXIE! The Cunning Little Vixen.

The Italian mezzo-soprano Anna Bonitatibus, who was Sesto in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto and then in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, returns to La Monnaie for the role of Cecilio. One week earlier, we will also have the pleasure of listening to her in a recital devoted to Rossini.

Mozart at La Monnaie is almost always the occasion for a happy return to our stage of Simona Šaturová. After Servillia (La clemenza di Tito), Sandrina (La finta giardiniera), Ilia (Idomeneo) and Ismene (Mitri­date) - not to mention the title role of Verdi's La Traviata - the Slovak soprano will endorse the costumes of Lucio Cinna.

Cinna's sister, Celia, will be performed by the Belgian soprano Ilse Eerens, a regular guest on our stage in recent seasons. The Italian tenor Carlo Allemano will play Aufidio.

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CREATIVE TEAM:

Conductor - ANTONELLO MANACORDA
Director - TOBIAS KRATZER
Set and costume design - RAINER SELLMAIER
Lighting - REINHARD TRAUB
Video - MANUEL BRAUN
Dramaturgy - KRYSTIAN LADA
Chorus master - MARTINO FAGGIANI

CAST:

Lucio Silla - JEREMY OVENDEN
Giunia - LENNEKE RUITEN
Cecilio - ANNA BONITATIBUS
Lucio Cinna - SIMONA ŠATUROVÁ
Celia - ILSE EERENS
Aufidio - CARLO ALLEMANO

With the LA MONNAIE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA and CHORUS

IF YOU GO:

Opening night: October 29 - 15:00
October 31 - 19:00
November 02, 04, 07, 09 & 15 - 19:00
November 12 - 15:00

At LA MONNAIE
Place de la Monnaie - 1000 Brussels

INFO & TICKETS
+ 32 2 229 12 11
MM Tickets, Entrance Hall theatre, entrance Rue des Princes, 1000 Brussels - tickets@lamonnaie.be

PRICES
From € 10 to € 149
ONLINE TICKETS

AROUND THE STAGE:

INTRODUCTION
Half an hour before the performance

STREAMING | on www.lamonnaie.be
The performance of November 9 will be livestreamed on the website of Arte Concert and from December 5th till 25th, the production will be available on our website (in full version and free of charge). MM Channel, the audiovisual project of La Monnaie is supported by our Patrons.

Image © Vittorio Ciccarelli

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