Introduction by Deirdre O’Grady, UCD Emeritus Professor of Italian and Comparative Studies.
Film in Italian with English subtitles.
Rossini/Aventi, Ciro in Babilonia/Cyrus in Babylon Ferrara 1812
Amira: ‘È di madre il pianto mio/È di sposa il mio dolor’
‘My tears are that of a mother/My sorrow that of a spouse’.
The plot is drawn from the fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel. Aventi’s libretto reflects the eighteenth-century enlightenment conflict between freedom and tyranny. It treats of the threatening of a grieving woman, Amira wife of Ciro, by Baldassare King of Babylon, while using her son as a pawn. Ciro in disguise gains access to the court of the tyrant but on being discovered is condemned to death. He is freed when the Persian army conquers Babylon. A ‘semi-serious’ opera it combines heroic endurance, family values and a happy ending. Ciro, created by the contralto Maria Marcolini is this production sung by the celebrated Polish coloratura contralto Ewa Podleś. With a range of three octaves Podleś gives a performance in the tradition of the great artists of the Golden Age of opera.
Davide Livemore’s epic production depicting a silent movie in a theatre setting has all the pomp and splendour of a Cecil B. De Mille historical pageant. Gianluca Falaschi’s award-winning costume designs complete this outstanding production.
[U1]Ake
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