Today, the Theater Basel presents the world première of Diodati. Unendlich (Diodati. Neverending), an opera composed by Michael Wertmüller, with a libretto by Dea Loher.
(c) Kim Culetto
It is Wertmüller's third opera after Anschlag (Lucerne Festival, August 2013) and Weine nicht, singe (Hamburg, September 2015).
A group of Britons with literary ambitions involved in a ménage à six travel to Switzerland in 1816 in search of « sublime » nature – they include Percy Shelley and his later wife Mary, Lord Byron and his personal physician John Polidori. However, the catastrophic weather of this legendary « year without a summer », the result of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia, forces the friends to wait for eight days in a villa on Lake Geneva. Here these cosmopolitan libertines – in no small measure under the influence of hallucinogens – tell each other made up stories about creatures controlled by others that reflect the depths of their own personalities – as well as their longing to actively shape their lives and to tackle social problems. (reproduced from the Theater Basel website)The cast includes mezzo Kristina Stanek (Mary Godwin), tenor Rolf Romei (Percy Bysshe Shelley), soprano Sara Hershkowitz (Claire Clairmont), baritone Holger Falk (Lord Byron), bass baritone Seth Carico (Dr. John Polidori) and soprano Samantha Gaul (Augusta Leigh). Titus Engel conducts the Sinfonieorchester Basel. Lydia Steier directs.
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