Organization

Lighting designer

Joachim Klein

Costume designer

Susanne Uhl

Video designer

Marlene Blumert

Chorus master

Tilman Michael

Singer

Contralto

Maria Ostroukhova

Falliero

Stage director

Tilmann Köhler

Conductor

Giuliano Carella

Set designer

Karoly Risz

Dramaturge

Zsolt Horpácsy

Bass

Božidar Smiljanić

Priuli

Tenor

Theo Lebow

Contareno

Kihwan Sim

Capellio

Beth Taylor

Soprano

Heather Phillips

Bianca

Carlos Andrés Cárdenas

Un cancelliere del Consiglio dei Tre

Oper Frankfurt

Others

Choir of the Frankfurt Opera

Orchestra

Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester

Italian

Bianca e Falliero -  (Bianca and Falliero)

Frankfurt am Main

Germany

Opernhaus

Bianca e Falliero Rossini

Public

Bianca and Falliero

German

English

Approved

“Der Sopranistin Heather Phillips gelingt ein famoses Debüt” - Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung. Heather made her European debut as Bianca in Rossini’s Bianca e Falliero in 2022 at Oper Frankfurt. Video highlights showcase her in this bel canto drama, the last Rossini composed for Teatro alla Scala.

Video: Courtesy of Thiemo Hehl, Oper Frankfurt
Director: Tilmann Köhler 
Conductor: Giuliano Carella
Cover Photo: Barbara Aumüller

Bianca e Falliero - Trailer

A city strives for world power, it uncovers conspiracies, defeats its enemies and isolates itself for fear of threats. Behind its walls, the miniature state of Venice suppresses every form of individuality and love. The inhuman system freezes.

The family drama Bianca e Falliero , Rossini's last opera written for La Scala in Milan, is set in this oppressive atmosphere. It is one of his charming but - wrongly - rarely performed works. The librettist Felice Romani combines an espionage story with a variant of the story of Romeo and Juliet, with the feuding families this time in a long-standing inheritance dispute.

Bianca, the daughter of Senator Contareno, secretly loves General Falliero, but her father's political and financial interests threaten their love. Bianca is mercilessly used as a hostage in the family feud. Falliero, the defender of the state, returns from the war just as Bianca is about to be forced into a marriage with Capellio. The conflicts are inevitable, Bianca's ordeal between fatherly love as the original bond and the promised devotion to the beloved gave Rossini the opportunity to expand his means of expression.

This time the virtuoso coloraturas are far removed from any bel canto acrobatics. The decorative art in the large-scale scenes of the protagonists serves as a stylistic device in the depiction of a four-way conflict. This bold concept in shaping the vocal parts was Rossini's Semiseria's undoing. Not least because of the high vocal demands, the opera was not able to establish itself during the composer's lifetime. It was only rediscovered in 1986 in Rossini's native town of Pesaro and revealed its extraordinary qualities.

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble