I Capuleti e i Montecchi – Romeo und Julia

In the organizer's words:

Opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini
Libretto by Felice Romani after Matteo Bandello | In Italian with German surtitles | Co-production with the Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy, the Theater St. Gallen and the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen
For ages 12 and up

Few stories have found their way onto the stage as often as that of Romeo and Juliet, the offspring of feuding families in Verona who fight for their love - and perish as a result. Shakespeare's most famous conflict, the tragedy Romeo and Juliet, was largely unknown in Italy at the beginning of the 19th century. Librettist Felice Romani therefore drew inspiration directly from the Italian novella The Tragic Death of Two Unhappy Lovers and opened up a new perspective on the supposedly well-known material, focusing on the lovers' last 24 hours: Thus, when the curtain rises, a war is already raging, its origins long forgotten, bringing the desperate conflict between a sense of familial duty and unconditional love all the more to the fore.
In a stroke of genius, Bellini composed Romeo as a mezzo part. The multi-award-winning director Pınar Karabulut picks up on this impulse and uses the musical structure to question gender roles and power relations.