La sonnambula

Following the great success of Donizetti’s La Fille du regiment, this season’s programme will once again be enriched by a concertante opera performance – of Vincenzo Bellini’s La sonnambula. Apart from Norma, La Sonnambula is Bellini’s most famous work and the only opera by the composer to have enjoyed a continuous tradition of performance since its première in 1831. Since the triumphant success of Giuditta Pasta as Amina and Giovanni Battista as Elvino in the première production at the Teatro Carcano in Milan, these two extremely demanding principal roles have been sung by almost every famous singer in these vocal registers. At Zurich Opera House, it is now Pretty Yende and Lawrence Brownlee’s turn to rise to the challenge. Both have already been celebrated at Zurich Opera House in Bellini’s I puritani. And both have enjoyed stellar international careers in recent years. Lawrence Brownlee is considered one of the best tenors worldwide for Italian bel canto, while Pretty Yende sings Rossini’s, Donizetti’s and Bellini’s great soprano roles on the world’s most important opera stages – recently above all at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. For the first time, she will now portray the Amina of her favourite composer, Vincenzo Bellini, whose famous «melodie lunghe, lunghe, lunghe» «speak directly to her soul», as the singer professed in an interview. The musical direction will be in the hands of Maurizio Benini, a renowned specialist in the Italian repertoire, who has already given guest performances at Zurich Opera House as the conductor of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi.