Umsagnir um prófíl
1The Czech soprano, Anna Quadratrova, essayed the role of Semele with real flair. She captured her depersonalised state perfectly, interacting disinterestedly in her medicated semi-coma, her vacant expression revealing her inner hollowness. Her singing, however, was far removed from such a state; it was expressive and fresh with an attractive youthful timbre.
Umsagnir um fyrri framleiðslu
1Dionysos, the son of Zeus and the human princess, Semele, was the last of the gods to arrive at Olympus, and was always seen as somewhat of an outsider. Widely known for being the god of wine, of ritual madness and religious ecstasy, he is also the god of illusion and the theatre. He is associated with the giving over of the self to the senses, both pleasurable and painful, and of the abandonment of restraint and rationality, hence his worshippers indulge in frenzied revelries, who then reap both its positive and negative consequences. It is possible that the Dionysos cult may go back 3,500 years, yet the myth and its message still retain a strong hold over the human imagination, its relevance for today’s society as pertinent as ever, and this is the starting point for the composer, Roberto David Rusconi’s, new opera “Dionysos Rising,” premiered in Trento as part of the OPER.A.20.21, 2018-19 season.
