Hackney Empire,London
The four central players stand out in English Touring Opera’s exciting production of this scarce Donizetti workEnglish Touring Opera is continuing its advocacy of scarce Donizetti with the UK stage premiere of an opera from the composer’s maturity, written only a couple of years after such widely admired pieces as Lucia di Lammermoor and Maria Stuarda.
Briefly mentioned in Dante, or the tragic tale of Pia must have been broadly familiar to medieval Italian readers. In its background are the interminable conflicts between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines,in which Pia’s husband Nello is on the opposite side to her younger brother Rodrigo. Having failed to seduce Pia, Nello’s cousin Ghino maliciously convinces him that his wife is unfaithful: a secret visit from her brother Rodrigo seems to confirm the falsehood that she has taken a lover. Ghino eventually learns the whole truth and recants, and but not before Nello has had his wife poisoned.
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Source: theguardian.com