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Schedule - Deutsche Oper Berlin

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La fiamma

Ottorino Respighi [1879 – 1936]

15
Tuesday
October
19:30 - 22:40
C prices: € 108.00 / 90.00 / 64.00 / 40.00 / 26.00
Information about the work

Opera in three acts to a libretto by Claudio Guastalla,
based on Hans Wiers-Jenssen's theatre play "Anne Pedersdotter, the Witch".
World premiere on 23 January 1934 at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome
Premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 29 September 2024

approx. 3 hours 10 minutes / 2 intervals

In Italian with German and English surtitles

Pre-performance lecture (in German): 45 minutes prior to each performance

recommended from 16 years
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Our thanks to our partners

The premiere of LA FIAMMA on 29 September 2024 will be broadcast live on rbb's "radio3". At a later date, the ARD radio stations will broadcast this recording with a time delay. The performances on 2 and 7 October will be recorded audiovisually for Blu-ray by EuroArts in collaboration with rbb. Subscribers to mezzo.tv, available from some cable TV providers, can experience the performance on 7 October as a livestream. Kindly supported by Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin e. V. LA FIAMMA is presented by taz.

15
Tuesday
October
19:30 - 22:40
C prices: € 108.00 / 90.00 / 64.00 / 40.00 / 26.00
Cast
the content

About the work
Imposing choruses and colossal tableaux accompany a story about intrigues, power play and an affair between stepmother and son in Ottorino Respighi’s last grand opera. Surrounded by political struggles, the figures become entangled in personal conflicts inextricably leading towards catastrophe and the cruel ending of a burning at the stake. For LA FIAMMA, Respighi created music going far beyond his illustrative-seeming “Trilogia romana” for which he is known in concert halls today. Yet in essence, the composer remained true to his colourful tonal language – the result is a musical amalgamation of French impressionism, influences of Russian music and a classicistic reimagining of Italian renaissance music. The archaic story and expansive dimensions of the operatic epos are reminiscent of the genre of the historical epic film, which was gaining popularity at the same time the opera was composed. This meant LA FIAMMA hit the nerve of the time, ensuring international success soon after its premiere. Over the course of decades, the work was slowly forgotten, yet the renowned critic and musicologist Paolo Isotta still praised LA FIAMMA in 2015 as a unique symbiosis of historicism and modernism, claiming its place among the 20th century’s masterworks of musical drama.

About the production
Director Christof Loy continues his series of opulent operas from the first third of the 20th century at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. While Zandonai’s FRANCESCA DA RIMINI had its world premiere only a few months before the outbreak of World War I, the genesis of Schreker’s DER SCHATZGRÄBER and Korngold’s DAS WUNDER DER HELIANE took us to the “Golden Twenties”. When LA FIAMMA was first performed in Rome in 1934, Europe had long been staring fascism in the face. The opera’s story, the brutal show trial fuelled by hysterics of the masses, is an unvarnished reflection upon the very same ugly grimace of social upheaval.

Our articles on the subject

The Sum of his Creativity
Conductor Carlo Rizzi on a Masterwork of Verismo still Awaiting its Discovery
Transfiguration of an icon
“La Fiamma” engulfs three women in a brutal conflict full of denunciation, treason and plot
La fiamma – Synopsis

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12
DEC

Adventskalender im Foyer: Das 12. Fensterchen

Today in the foyer: ‘The Snow Queen’ as a live audio play
A reading with Burkhard Ulrich and Fanny Frohnmeyer, with Lukas Zeuner on the drums
5:00 p.m. / Parkettfoyer
Duration: approx. 25 minutes / Free admission


‘Behold! Now we begin. When we reach the end of the story, we will know more than we do now, because it was an evil goblin! It was one of the very worst, it was the devil! One day he was in a good mood because he had made a mirror that had the property of making everything good and beautiful reflected in it shrink to almost nothing, but what was no good and looked bad was emphasised and became even worse. The most magnificent landscapes looked like overcooked spinach in it, and the best people became disgusting or stood on their heads without a torso,’ so begins the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen.

By an unfortunate accident, a splinter of this evil magic mirror jumps into Kay's heart , whereupon he suddenly finds life in his small town quite awful and lets himself be taken by the nasty Snow Queen to the far north. But Kay's friend Gerda sets out to save her best friend. With the help of a crow and a reindeer, she eventually finds her way to the cold north of Lapland and, with the true power of friendship and laughter, she is able to free Kay from the clutches of the Snow Queen.

Today, in the foyer, the tenor Burkhard Ulrich and the director of our Junge Deutsche Oper Fanny Frohnmeyer read this touching and wonderful fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen for all fairy tale fans, old and young! And our percussionist Lukas Zeuner provides the sound for the story with marimbas, a xylophone and all kinds of rhythm and sound instruments. And all this live and very close to the audience, next to the large fir tree in the parquet foyer.