Venue: Teatro Comunale di Bologna

Vick enjoys working with young singers, and in with the young second cast he is spoiled.

The Comunale had teamed up with Bologna's basketball team Virtus to create a 50%-off ticket deal aimed at drawing new audiences. The subject matter of this opera might not seem the most immediately accessible, but this was playing to capture the imaginations of opera newbies.

One wonders why Emma Dante's concept, which explores the plight of women crushed by romantic catastrophes, is not done more often.

In Livermore's staging the scheme becomes meta-cinematographic: the poet Prosdocimus here has Marcello Mastroianni's features in Fellini's film 8 ½.

Juan Diego Flórez plays the role for the first time on stage and it's a vocal triumph 

A pure and intense evening of music, which deserved the warm ovation of the audience at the end of the execution. 

Thanks to Wilson, to an orchestra in great shape, and to an excellent cast, this production was a success. Everybody did his best in the orchestra and in the chorus, without disregarding the soring passages of the score.