Umberto Giordano’s FEDORA swings between whodunnit and the world of political intrigue, at once a tragic love story and a riveting psychogram. The opera was based on the play of the same name by Victorien Sardou, a French playwright who had already provided the source material for Puccini’s TOSCA. The triumphant world premiere of FEDORA in 1898 at the Tetro Lirico in Milan went down in history for featuring the break-out performance of the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso, who established its best-known aria, “Amor ti vieta”, in the collective memory of the world’s operagoers. That first production went on to huge international acclaim, touring Vienna, Paris, Hamburg and the New York MET. Giordano’s best received work after ANDREA CHÉNIER, FEDORA continues to thrill audiences with its musical richness and iconic melodies as it goes about depicting a fin-de-siécle elite whose private issues become entangled with political wheeling and dealing.

Princess Fedora Romazov is all a-flutter on the eve of her marriage to Count Vladimir Andrejevich, who is suddenly killed in an exchange of pistol fire. Fedora follows the presumed assassin and Russian exile, Count Ipanov, to Paris with a view to having him arrested, but Ipanov confesses the deed and declares his love for her. He had caught his own wife in the act of adultery with Fedora’s fiancé, who had then fired on Ipanov, which led to him killing the two-timer in self-defence. This revelation comes too late for him and Fedora, as the Russian police have already acted on her information and taken measures against Ipanov’s family. The lovers learn of this at their refuge in the Swiss Alps. A remorseful Fedora sees suicide as her only way out.

Spotlight
Following on from his celebrated revival of lesser-known gems of early-20th-century opera, which culminated in Ottorino Respighi’s LA FIAMMA in the autumn of 2024, Christof Loy now brings FEDORA, a jewel of Italian verismo, to the stage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The multi-award-winning director, who only last year added another International Opera Award to his list of accolades, lays bare the eponymous character in all her multi-faceted ambiguity, coaxing masterly performances from his singers and presenting a complex interplay of relationships, assisted by the work of set and costumes designer Herbert Murauer. Having garnered glowing notices in Stockholm and Frankfurt, FEDORA has now arrived in Berlin.