I vespri sicilianiNew production

«Sicilian Vespers» is the name given to the bloody massacre that took place on Easter Monday 1282, when Sicilians attacked their French occupiers, killing thousands of them. Verdi and his librettist Eugène Scribe chose this conflict, of all things, as the subject matter for the first operatic commission the Paris Opera gave to the Italian composer, who had just come off the success of his Rigoletto there. But the story’s historical angle wasn’t what interested Verdi; he was fascinated by the unrequited love between the Sicilian Duchess Elena and the resistance fighter Arrigo, who learns that the hated leader of the French occupying forces is his father. Torn between his love for Elena, his common ideals, and his newly discovered family ties, Arrigo decides to thwart the assassination attempt planned by the insurgents on Guido de Montforte. Subsequently, the revolutionaries – and with them Arrigo’s lover Elena – are arrested. As a sign of peace, and to prevent further bloodshed, Montforte orders the marriage of Elena and Arrigo. But Procida, a Sicilian doctor and leader of the insurgents, has chosen their wedding bells as a signal for the massacre to begin; French and Sicilians perish alike in the bloody slaughter.

After the premiere in 1855 in Paris, the Vêpres Siciliennes was translated into Italian, and the version known as I vespri siciliani became an international hit. It includes the themes that preoccupied Verdi throughout his life: the troubled father-son relationship, the loneliness of the powerful, the incompatibility of private desires and public obligations. Croatian conductor Ivan Repušić conducts the Philharmonia Zürich for the first time, and Calixto Bieito directs for the stage. Quinn Kelsey returns to the Opernhaus as Montforte, while Maria Agresta and Sergey Romanovsky are the tragic couple.

On June 17, 2023 the official ticket sale for the season 23/24 starts. Friends, subscribers, and shareholders can take advantage of their advance purchase rights one week earlier.