Donizetti Opera 2025

The 2025 edition of Donizetti Opera is the first under the leadership of Riccardo Frizza in the dual role of Artistic and Music Director, and presents over three consecutive weekends four titles in three new productions: at the Teatro Donizetti Caterina Cornaro is staged in its modern premiere, featuring the complete poetic text set to music by Donizetti and ending as the composer originally intended, as well as Il furioso nell’isola di S. Domingo in musical score’s full version, dated 1833; at the Teatro Sociale, in the Upper City, a double bill of two one-act operas: Il campanello, in the 1837 version, and Deux hommes et une femme in its original French version.
The plots seem like variations on a single theme: marriage. In Caterina Cornaro, the protagonist would like to marry her beloved, but political reasons, harsh to the point of blackmail, force her into a different kind of union. A treacherous and scornful wife has driven the Furiosomad on the island of Santo Domingo. In Il Campanello, the imaginative tricks of the bride’s ex prevent the new husband from spending the wedding night with her. In Deux Hommes, a returned-from-the-dead husband and the new suitor compete to get rid of a woman who is too headstrong and even violent.