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.