Donizetti - La Favorite

Lucia loves Edgardo, the last heir of her family’s enemy clan. They are in danger, but Lucia refuses to betray her love. A ring falls to the floor, the nightmare begins – the nocturnal sky fills with lightning and thunder, madness and blood reign, there is a corpse, then another and yet another. Staatsoper Hamburg's Lucia di Lammermoor turns the city into a stage. Inspired by worldwide women's protests, director Amelie Niermeyer has filmed dancers in the city and invites them into the theatre via video. They rush to the aid of the main character Lucia, who - like the director - asserts herself as a woman in a man's world.

Like an outcry the elemental force of the orchestra shatters the silence, the storm on the coast of Cyprus rages incessantly. The wind whips, lightening cuts through the roaring skies. As Othello, the great general and commander becomes entangled in Iago's web of machinations; as the calamitous seed of jealousy germinates and Othello's love for his wife Desdemona begins to decay, even on their wedding day; as Desdemona, "nevertheless insists, although she senses or feels that this harm comes her way, and that Othello in his jealousy is really capable of killing her" (Amélie Niermeyer) – with his Otello Verdi created an operatic drama, the likes of which had never before been so tight, so direct, so intensive and so beautiful, and still today unmatched.