Claudio Guastalla

Based on a short story written by Novel Prize for Literature in 1894, Grazia Deladda, “La Grazia” is a classic Italian-drama that follows the story of the a man (Giorgio Bianchi) who fell in love with beautiful shepherdess (Carmen Boni). Separated by fate, the man had an accident on his way back to his wife. For years, absence of her husband has made the woman suffer. She takes care of her child while waiting for her husband’s return.

Christof Loy continues his exploration of early 20th-century opera at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Respighi's rarely heard La fiamma. Imposing choruses and sweeping tableaux drive a drama of suspicion, desire and public frenzy, heightened here by Carlo Rizzi's musical direction and a cast led by Olesya Golovneva and Georgy Vasiliev. Premiered in 1934, the work mirrors a society sliding towards authoritarianism, its show trial carrying an unsettling emotional charge. Respighi's score moves beyond the colours of the Trilogia romana, blending impressionist shimmer, Russian influence and a renewed fascination with Italian Renaissance sound worlds.