In the 2020/2021 season Ópera de Tenerife is putting on Lucrezia Borgia, a title that could not be performed in March 2020 due to the health crisis. This is a coproduction of Auditorio de Tenerife, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Ópera de Oviedo and Teatro de la Maestranza.

A melodrama in a prologue and two acts with music by Gaetano Donizetti and libretto by Felice Romani, it is based on a drama, with the same title, by the French writer Victor Hugo and loosely based on the historical figure of Lucrezia Borgia. It was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala de Milan on 26 December 1833. Donizetti looks deeply into the morbid legend of Pope Alessandro VI’s daughter who grew up in a family surrounded by rumours of incest, adultery, infidelity, betrayal, murder, and horror, creating a strong psychological portrait of a powerful but fragile woman.

The music director of the Teatr Wielki Opera Norodowa [Polish National Opera], Andriy Yurkevych, one of the most sought-after batons in the international arena, will conduct this title.

Stage director Silvia Paoli, who made her debut in Ópera de Tenerife with La Cenerentola [2014] and, after its success went on to work in Le nozze di Figaro [2015] and I Capuleti e i Montecchi [2017], is coming back with this international coproduction. Her interpretation of the work takes us to the 1930s when the rise of fascism in Italy marked women’s behaviour, ruled by the hidden vices and the public virtues of an androcentric society.