Stiffelio at Opéra de Monte-Carlo

New production in coproduction
with the Teatro Regio in Parma
The original libretto for Stiffelio dechaina relentlessly censorship for several reasons: the Italian society of the 19th century and its political, deeply Catholic, authorities were not ready to see on stage a story of adultery in the home of a pastor, nor the pardon her in full preaching while citing the New Testament. Giuseppe Verdi, disappointed before such misunderstanding but aware of the immense qualities of its partition, try (out of spite?) to destroy all existing copies of his manuscript. It transforms the seven years later in medieval drama as Aroldo, adding to the passage a musically very beautiful Act but which the agreed end is far from the stroke of genius from the final scene of Stiffelio. This is not before 1960 that a complete manuscript of the original artwork is found and it wasn't until 1993 and representations at the Metropolitan in New York to hear again the true Verdi's Stiffelio. It is the turn of the public of the Opera of Monte-Carlo to discover this masterpiece forgotten, composed at the same time as Rigoletto, where the rich melodic inspiration vies with the dramatic power of the subject.