I vespri siciliani

Reintroduction

Conductor: Carlo Rizzi
Production: Herbert Wernicke

An opera commission for Paris was regarded as particularly prestigious in the 19th century. However, more important for Verdi than the Paris success of his grand opera Les vêpres siciliennes was dealing with the stylistic requirements he met in Paris, which permanently enriched his own musical language. The Vienna State Oper is presenting the Italian version Verdi preferred in the staging by Herbert Wernicke, which shows the mediaeval uprising of the Sicilians against the French occupiers as a grim folk drama which has no winner.