Verdi himself classified his FORZA DEL DESTINO, which premiered in 1862, as the first "modern" opera that consisted of ideas instead of individual numbers. In fact the entire work draws its driving force from the polarity between two opposing worlds of feeling that possess the main characters to the point of obsession: on one side the alleged guilt for the death of Leonora's father, which hangs over her and her lover Alvaro. On the other side the lust for vengeance that drives Leonora's brother Carlo to chase them to the ends of the earth. An unconditional chase unfolds over three hours, leading the three lead characters through a world that is constantly derailing. In desolate crowd scenes we experience a disinhibited society in which pure survival matters above all else, and where violence has replaced any sense of morality. Even the church authority in whose arms Leonora and Alvaro seek refuge proves to be flawed and is the "Master of Fate", inferior to the power of evil.

War and religion are the poles that determine the lives of people in Verdi's LA FORZA DEL DESTINO. In the production by Frank Castorf, this idea of the play is made visible by its location in the Spanish Civil War and in Naples during the Second World War. Castorf uses, among other things, excerpts from the novels "La pelle" and "Kaputt" by the Italian Curzio Malaparte, who in a surrealistic aggravation depicts the horrors of war, but also an indestructible belief in life.