The Sleepwalker by Bellini, From (2023/2024), Directed by Ansgar Weigner, Conductor Mihkel Kütson, Stadttheater Krefeld, Krefeld, Germany

Bellini's La Sonnambula is one of the top operas in the bel canto repertoire and will now be performed at the community theater for the first time. With the generic term "semi-seria" (semi-serious), which was common at the time, the authors draw attention to the fact that they are dealing with serious material here, but with a happy ending is certain! In the only superficially naïve plot and the artificial musical language, director Ansgar Weigner is looking for deeper levels of meaning and current statements in his production. The opera is set in an idyllic Swiss mountain village. But the idyll is shaken when the young bride Amina is discovered sleeping in a count's hotel room the day before her wedding. As a result, her jealous fiancé Elvino casts her out and the village society attacks Amina with ridicule and moral contempt. Only when it turns out that Amina is a nightwalker does her suspicion of infidelity fall away and the wedding can be celebrated. When it premiered in Milan in 1831, the opera, which Bellini composed especially for the then famous prima donna Giuditta Pasta , was an enthusiastic success. Highly virtuosic coloratura runs, wide-ranging melodies and high pitched notes characterize this masterpiece of bel canto and unfold an almost sensual effect on the audience.