Bregenz Festival: Siberia

Брегенцский фестиваль: Сибирь

It is a tremendous act of love when Stephana gives up her life as a mistress in an elegant St Petersburg palace to follow her true love Vassili to a Siberian prison camp. In this exile, Stephana turns into a fearless hero. For Umberto Giordano, who also composed Andrea Chénier and Fedora, Siberia is a universally applicable human drama despite its Russian local color: “Love and pain do not have a nationality”. Siberia premiered in 1903 in La Scala in Milan replacing Giacomo Puccini’s postponed Madama Butterfly. Two young artists from Moscow bring the stirring opus to the Festspielhaus: the internationally aspiring director Vasily Barkhatov and Valentin Uryupin, who already conducted Eugene Onegin in Bregenz.

“Uryupin leads the agile Wiener Symphoniker through the score of Strauss’ contemporary Giordano with a feeling for delicately toned colours. Ambur Braid sings the demanding part of Stephana with bravura.” (FAZ)

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Actors

Stephana

Vassili

Principe Alexis

Glèby

Nikona

Fredrika Brillembourg

La fanciulla / The old Woman

Clarry Bartha

Ivan / The Cossack

Manuel Günther

Crew

Director

Vasily Barkhatov

Conductor

Valentin Uryupin

Set designer

Christian Schmidt

Costume Designer

Nicole von Graevenitz

Lighting Designer

Aleksander Sivaev

Special project

Bregenz Festival

TheatreHD presents a collection of performances from the annual opera festival in Bregenz, renowned for its floating stage on Lake Constance. The vast space allows for the most fantastical scenery to unfold above the water, and the set designers working on Bregenz productions traditionally give free rein to their creativity, whether it's a giant moving clown head in "Rigoletto," the vividly recreated traditional Japan of the 19th century in "Madama Butterfly," or the combination of grand video projections with intimate spaces in the rarely performed opera "Siberia" by Umberto Giordano. →

Summary

Place: Russia Time: First half of the 19th century
Act 1: “The Woman”
Saint Petersburg, August, during the Festival of Saint Alexander

Stephana is the mistress of Prince Alexis, living in an elegant palace, who was once seduced by Gleby, a scoundrel, who sold her to the Prince and has been living off a pension granted to him by the Prince. Stephana loves Vassili, a lieutenant who corresponds with her but assumes she is a simple working girl, because they always meet in disguise outside her house. When summoned to war he goes to meet Stephana and learns the truth about her, but he is still smitten with her. The Prince enters and demands an explanation which develops into a duel during which Vassili kills the Prince with his sword; he is detained and sent to the police.

Act 2: “The Lover”
The frontier between Russia and Siberia in winter

Several prisoners are making their way through the snow on foot to the mines where they are forced to work. Amongst them is Vassili worn almost out, he is despairing, a group of women and children are waiting along the road to bid farewell to the prisoners. Stephana arrives in a sleigh, she has left all to join her beloved in whatever fate awaits him, she does not listen to his pleas to return, when ordered to, they both march into the vastness of Siberia.

Act 3: “The Heroine”
A hut of convicts in the mines of Trans-Baikal on the eve of Russian Easter

Due to the upcoming festivities, the prisoners are allowed to organize a feast. Stephana, excited by this, devises a scheme with an old convict to escape with Vassili, but Gleby has arrived to the prison camp after finally being arrested in one of his many crimes. He recognizes Stephana and insults her in front of everybody, including Vassili, who tries to defend her but is stopped by the other inmates. The church bell rings and prayers start. During the night Vassili and Stephana execute their plan to escape, but Gleby gives the alarm, the troops pursue the prisoners and a shot is heard, they bring Vassili back and carry Stephana, who was wounded, she bids farewell to Vassili and dies.