Name: 3. Concert La Scintilla
Start: 2026-05-18T19:00:00
Location: Zurich Opera House

Stefano Montanari

The Spark Orchestra

Opernhaus Zürich

Scylla lives withdrawn into herself, as if in emotional hibernation. Reason, peace, and harmony reign in her cosmos. When Glaucus enters her life, everything changes: She experiences love in all its colors and facets – and does not recognize herself. The opera describes all the lust, wildness, panic, and despair that the young woman experiences as she rediscovers the world for herself. In the end, she will be someone else. Jean-Marie Leclair's rarely performed only opera is a musical discovery. Director Claus Guth returns to Opernhaus Zürich with this new production.

Scylla and Glaucus

Zurich Opera House

A coup attempt and his best friend a conspirator – yet Tito would rather relinquish his throne than base his power on fear and terror. "La clemenza di Tito" is a work that poses timeless questions about the use of power, guilt, and forgiveness. Mozart's late opera seria contains some of his most fascinating arias and ensembles. The rising tenor Giovanni Sala sings Tito, while Cecilia Bartoli interprets Sesto, one of her signature roles. The historically informed Orchestra La Scintilla performs under the direction of Gianluca Capuano.

La clemenza di Tito

An attempted coup is uncovered, and his best friend is a conspirator – but Tito would rather renounce his office as ruler than base his power on fear and terror. «La clemenza di Tito» is a work that poses timeless questions about how to deal with power, and about guilt and forgiveness. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s late opera seria contains some of his most beautiful arias and ensembles. Conductor Marc Minkowski returns to Opernhaus Zürich with this new production, as does Italian director Damiano Michieletto.

The clemency of Titus

Puccini’s one-act opera does not end with a tragic operatic death. The body of the rich Buoso Donati is already laid out when the curtain rises, his loudly lamenting relatives gathered around. But appearances can be deceiving. Puccini paints a family portrait of a shameless and greedy community of heirs. Even shrewd mastermind Gianni Schicchi is only out for himself. This lively ensemble piece is tailor-made for the members of the International Opera Studio. Up-and-coming director Lilli Fischer combines Puccini’s only comic opera with a newly developed prequel.

Gianni Schicchi

In order to free her husband Florestan, Leonore disguises herself as a male prison guard and sneaks into a prison. Beethoven’s only opera is infused with an unwavering belief in the power of hope. The powerful liberation music at the end anticipates the «Ode to Joy» from his Ninth Symphony. Andreas Homoki separates the plot from its bourgeois comic light opera context, focusing instead on the utopian idea of world brotherhood and the universal themes of humanity that Beethoven chose as his central focus. Klaus Florian Vogt, one of the most outstanding tenors of our time, will appear as Florestan.

Fidelio

Chamber music concerts are an important part of the program. In various formations and ensembles, the musicians of the Orchester der Oper Zürich explore a wide repertoire. At close quarters and in intimate spaces, audiences experience the intensity of the musicians as they make music. Each of the nine chamber music programs in the Spiegelsaal has its own individual focus: classics of the genre meet rarely heard works, and early music meets crossover.

9th Chamber Concert

Hall of Mirrors

«La Damnation de Faust» is one of Hector Berlioz's most revolutionary works, a dramatic journey to hell that is part opera, part oratorio. «I neither tried to translate Goethe’s masterpiece nor to imitate it, but simply let it work on me in an effort to grasp its musical content», the composer stated candidly. His multicolored music is imaginary theater, a journey into Faust’s interior, from which the devil Méphistophélès himself seems to emerge.

The Damnation of Faust

3. Concert La Scintilla

In the middle of his career, Giuseppe Verdi with «created one of his most diverse scores». Embedded in effective ensemble scenes that oscillate between operetta-like, mysterious oracular magic and dark conspiracy drama, Verdi focuses on the private fate of a politician: Riccardo, the governor of Boston, is in love with Amelia, the wife of his best friend and advisor Renato. When the two are discovered during a passionate nocturnal encounter, Renato joins the conspirators and discovers Riccardo's disguise at the masked ball.

A Masked Ball

In William Shakespeare’s drama «Romeo and Juliet», the power of love allows two young people to transcend ordinary human limitations. Thanks to Sergei Prokofiev’s music, the star-crossed lovers of Verona have conquered the ballet stage. He brilliantly captured the clashing of love and hate and the juxtaposition of tenderness and violence in his colorful, passionate score.

Romeo and Juliet

In William Shakespeare's drama "Romeo and Juliet," the power of love allows two young people to transcend their limitations. The lovers of Verona have conquered the ballet stage thanks to the music of Sergei Prokofiev. He masterfully captured the clash of love and hate, and the juxtaposition of tenderness and violence, in his vibrant, passionate score. Cathy Marston brings the world's most famous love story to the stage with the Zurich Ballet as a world of contrasts, where everything can change in an instant: around the next corner awaits the love of your life, or perhaps death itself.