Video on demand: Lucrezia Borgia

A poisoner, murderer, femme fatale, schemer and liar, daughter and concubine of the Pope and lover of her brother. Lucrezia owes these legendary attributes to her surname, for the Borgias were one of the most influential and, for that reason, most hated families of the Renaissance – the Vatican's first mafia. Is there any room left to see Lucrezia Borgia as an unhappy woman and a passionately loving mother?

In his 1833 opera Lucrezia Borgia, Gaetano Donizetti approaches the title character with psychological precision, creating one of the most beautiful and multifaceted bel canto roles for coloratura soprano. Donizetti breaks with traditional opera seria and creates a psychologically nuanced portrait of a woman caught between power, guilt and longing. The dramatic template was provided by Victor Hugo's play of the same name, in which Lucrezia Borgia becomes the involuntary murderer of her own son. In her production for Nationaltheater Mannheim, director Rahel Thiel tells the story of a lone woman in a man's world, who wants to defy the fate of her name. Myth or humanity - was Lucrezia Borgia more than a femme fatale?

Recorded on 16.12.2025