Overview

• Ulrich Rasche has staged Donizetti’s seldom-performed Belcanto work using three giant rotating platforms that shift pace to craft a ritualistic visual environment.
• Lisette Oropesa and Kate Lindsey earned praise for their nuanced portrayals of Maria Stuarda and Elisabeth, embodying lyricism and dramatic intensity.
• Antonello Manacorda’s restrained conducting of the Vienna Philharmonic emphasized delicate Belcanto phrasing over virtuosic flourish.
• This is the first fully scenic Belcanto opera at the Salzburger Festspiele since 2009, reflecting a renewed interest in 19th-century Italian repertoire.
• Critics lauded the production’s high-risk aesthetic and formal abstraction for bringing fresh clarity to Donizetti’s political drama.