"The third opera in the programme of the Donizetti festival in Bergamo was a surprising and well-deserved success thanks to the cast led by Gilda Fiume and Antonino Siragusa, the direction of Stefano Simone Pintor, and the conducting of Corrado Rovaris. [...] It may be a fragile dramaturgy, but Alfredo il grande is a work that is linked to a close political topicality, and director Stefano Simone Pintor (with set designer Gregorio Zurla, costume designer Giada Masi, Fiammetta Baldiserri for the lights and Virginio Levrio for the videos) did well to gracefully relate it to the contemporary world. Rather than the generic good and legitimate ruler of Tottola's verses, he looks at the depth of the historical figure, the 9th century sovereign who was a legislator and promoter of literacy, translation of Latin texts into English, a cultural policy of fundamental importance for the country's development. Here then, the canonical horned helmets of the Viking barbarians are not only a tender allusion to iconographic tradition, but on closer inspection are actually replicas of the headgear of the famous 'Shaman' of the 6 January 2021 attack on Capitol Hill. In contrast, Alfredo, his wife Amalia, General Eduardo, even the peasant girls Enrichetta and Margherita with Guglielmo (here a prelate) often appear with a book in hand, intent on reading or writing.In the backdrop projections, which are effective and non-invasive, the redemption is a redemption of culture represented by refined illuminated pages, while the barbaric violence has the ignorant and pernicious guise of those who in history have burned and burn books, of wars of yesterday and today.Today we celebrate not monarchy, but civilisation, and indeed Amalia sheds her tiara and ermine to intone her final rondo."