Friday, March 04, 2011

Lucrezia Borgia


There's an interesting production of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at the ENO, directed by Mike Figgis. The opera is about Lucrezia's later life when she finds her son who was given away at birth. He falls in love with her and only discovers that she's his mother when he's been accidentally poisoned by her at the end. Claire Rutter, whom I saw in Tosca at The Grange last year, sings beautifully, as does Michael Fabiano, the tenor who plays her son Gennaro.
What is unusual is Figgis' decision to intersperse four short clips of film during the production to give the audience more colour about Lucrezia's debauched upbringing. The language of the film is Italian, the actors beautiful, the colours vivid, elegantly shot scenes of sex and murder. Not a production one would forget in a hurry.

5 Comments:

Blogger Eurodog said...

Oops! Accidently poisoned?

10:41 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Absolutely nothing to do with opera, but have you seen Paolo Sorrentino's film 'Il Divo' ??

Almost an operatic take on the life of Guilio Andreotti with spectacle, colour and amazing cinematography.

I can't help thinking you might find it better than a night in front of what passes for TV in this country these days.

8:40 pm  
Blogger Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Oh, I'd love to see that!

11:11 pm  
Blogger Whispering Walls said...

She ordered poisoned wine to be served to his friends at a party and didn't realise that he was also there. Unfortunate...

I haven't seen that, Anon - sounds very good.

Ciao WL!

9:16 am  
Blogger Ellee Seymour said...

I remembered devouring so many historical novels about this family when I was 14. I would read two a day. I doubt I will get to see the opera, and yes, unusual to have an operat interspersed with film clips.

9:02 pm  

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