Returning home from a journey, Stiffelio discovers that his wife Lina has been unfaithful to him with the nobleman Raffaele. His immediate impulse is to seek vengeance for this offence but, as the pastor of a Baptist church, he must justify every decision he makes not just to himself but also to God and the people he is called to serve as an example. He is gripped by a severe inner conflict. Giuseppe Verdi composed Stiffelio just before his “trilogia popolare”, centring the action around such an ambivalent anti-hero that both the board of censors and the audience did not initially know what to make of it following its premiere in 1850. And now in the 21st century, with certain values having shifted, Stiffelio’s conflict between what he desires to be and what he has to be remains challengingly topical. Following his interpretations of The Idiot and Norma, Vasily Barkhatov returns to the MusikTheater an der Wien as director, while conductor Jérémie Rhorer continues the exploration of the forgotten repertoires of the Romantic era that he began with Les Martyrs.

In Italian with German and English surtitles
Introduction to the work 30 minutes before curtain-up