Murder in St Petersburg, a chase across Europe, intrigues in luxury Swiss hotels: what sounds more like a spy thriller is in fact the plot of Giordano’s FEDORA. Rarely performed at all, this opera of the verismo genre has never aired in Berlin. And the opening night in November at the Deutsche Oper Berlin will mark another first for two young opera stars, the Lithuanian soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė and US-Chilean tenor Jonathan Tetelman, who have sung concertante and recorded arias together but never coincided in a full-scale staged opera. A long-awaited premiere, then, for them and us.

One of the leading tenors of our day, Jonathan Tetelman was awarded the 2023 »Opus Klassik« in the Young Talent of the Year category for his debut album »Arias«. The award clinched his status as a torchbearer for the lyric-dramatic fach, treading in the footsteps of legends such as Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. Tetelman had scarcely finished his studies in 2018 when he was being touted by the »New York Times« as a »total star« on the back of his Duke of Mantua in RIGOLETTO at the Berkshire Opera Festival. He has also triumphed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as Paolo in FRANCESCA DA RIMINI and in one of his signature roles as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s TOSCA.

Now Tetelman returns in a niche work. FEDORA is a dramatic and convoluted tale of love, revenge and espionage that surprised the tenor himself at first. »I had to smile at some of the plot twists,» he says. «My character’s brother gets arrested due to some tortuous conspiracy and then drowns in his flooded dungeon.« Yet it’s these twists that give the work its charm, in his opinion. »Fedora is a musical spy thriller à la James Bond with the protagonists chopping between St Petersburg, Paris and the Swiss Alps. It stretches the plausibility a bit, but it’s a nail-biting trip.«

And the plot does read like a film script: Princess Fedora Romazov swears to avenge the murder of her fiancé, Count Vladimir Andrejevich, in St Petersburg. Suspicion quickly falls on Count Loris Ipanov, who hightails it to Paris, pursued by Fedora, who is gathering evidence against him, disguised as a spy. But while making enquiries she discovers she has feelings for Ipanov, quickly hooking up with the very man who she is sure killed her fiancé. When Ipanov explains the reason for his deed, it is already too late to halt a chain of events that includes the death in jail of Ipanov’s brother.

FEDORA had its world premiere in 1898, but instead of addressing social inequality and rebellion as his contemporary Puccini did, Giordano shines his verismo light into the private lives of aristocrats. He gives us an early version of a global elite, flitting across Europe, hobnobbing not in market squares and inns but at soirées and in salons and fancy hotels. This glittery international set has little in common with the gritty reality of ordinary folk.

»This opera requires focus on the part of audience and singers alike,« explains Tetelman, »because there’s a lot of telling rather than showing. The action tends to be happening in the heads and hearts of the characters rather than on stage.« He has seen Christof Loy’s production and also sang Loris Ipanov in 2022 at the premiere in Frankfurt. »Christof solves this with some deft video footage including close-ups of the singers, which helps the audience relate to the emotion and makes the narrative even more filmic.«

Unlike Tetelman, Vida Miknevičiūtė comes to this work fresh. Her debut as Fedora also marks a change of direction for her. In recent years she has been impressing Deutsche Oper Berlin audiences in particular with German-language performances (e.g. Salome in Strauss’s opera of the same name and Senta in Wagner’s THE FLYING DUTCHMAN). »I was really keen to get back to Italian material,« she says. »There’s a big difference in the singing technique and musical sensibility. With Wagner and Strauss you’re attacking every word, making sure all the consonants come out right. In Italian opera it's the line of the melody that’s key. My voice is freed up in a totally different way.«

That she chose FEDORA for their debut as opera duo was partly down to Tetelman, with whom she has already sung on three occasions – each time under circumstances that might just as well have been captured on celluloid. They first met in a concert hall that had been turned into a recording studio, on the shores of the Atlantic in Gran Canaria. Tetelman: »We were thrown together to do the FRANCESCA DA RIMINI duet for my first album, »Arias«. My producer is a fan of Vida and suggested her for the gig – and how right he was, she was perfect.« The timetabling was very tight. Miknevičiūtė takes up the story: »I arrived late at night and we were recording on stage the next morning with the orchestra. At midday I was already flying out,« she says, laughing. Despite the scramble, Tetelman is chuffed with the recording to this day: »We clicked immediately, and that’s not something you can plan.« Encounter number two, in a rainy Berlin, likewise had a studio as backdrop for Tetelman’s second album, »The Great Puccini«, although they were in a booth with the orchestra piped through in headphones. »That was totally different,« recalls Miknevičiūtė. »It was much more technical and more of a challenge because there wasn’t the flexibility you have with a conductor and orchestra. But it still went brilliantly again.«

Miknevičiūtė debuted on stage in Lithuania in February 2025 at a concert performance of TOSCA – again with next to no preparation. »We basically had one day to rehearse. I was totally stressed out, because it was my first-ever stage appearance. Jonathan was an amazing support, and I can’t imagine how I would have done it without him.« Tetelman is full of admiration. »Vida is astonishing. She just gets on and does it – and from the sound you’d think she’d been singing the role all her life. She has a remarkable ability to get into a new role at the drop of a hat. I wish I could do that.«

In Berlin the two artists are now combining the skills of singer and thespian together for the first time – and under the directorial eye of Christof Loy, well known for the psychological depth of his productions. Tetelman has a lasting impression of the director as »incredibly meticulous, almost like a psychologist. He peels back the layers to reveal the core of a character’s personality.« For Miknevičiūtė her interaction with Loy in 2022 was another tale of covering for someone at the last minute, singing the title role in his SALOME premiere in Helsinki with no time to rehearse. »Yet again: I arrived in Helsinki with two hours to spare, which I spent rehearsing with Christof Loy, and then straight on stage,« she recounts. »but in those two hours I got to see his attention to detail. I was getting nervous, I was like: I’m about to go on stage and we’re discussing trivialities. Then when I got out there, it all made sense, so I’m doubly thrilled to be working with him intensively on a role at last.«

In Tetelman and Miknevičiūtė audiences can enjoy a collaboration between two artists coming from different operatic traditions. Musically, they complement each other perfectly: Tetelman with his tenor voice schooled in Italian passion, Miknevičiūtė with her lyric-dramatic power rooted in German material. FEDORA is tailor-made for both their strengths: musically varied, dramatic in its intensity, psychologically complex. An opera that, for all its dramaturgical exaggeration, tells the sort of story that we would normally associate with the big screen. The synthesis is a stage debut that delivers not only a premiere featuring two great voices but also a special experience for all lovers of riveting live entertainment. Miknevičiūtė: »The true magic of opera lies in the intensity that can only come from a live performance on stage.«

Tilman Mühlenberg is a musician, script writer and journalist. His articles on art and music are published in a variety of journals, including the magazine of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. As musician and producer he has released a number of recordings.