LA FORZA DEL DESTINO

About the show

War, flight, hatred, and revenge shape the grand life painting that Giuseppe Verdi created with "La forza del destino." While the wars of independence rage in Italy, Verdi addresses the theme of war in this opera by taking up a romantic Spanish drama and enriching it with scenes from Schiller’s war epic "Wallenstein." Today, Verdi’s monumental opera of fate can hardly be separated from current events. The Argentine director Valentina Carrasco, formerly a member of the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus, stages the work in Zurich. She combines iconic Swiss settings with images familiar from media coverage of global conflicts and raises the question: What does it feel like when war breaks out in one’s own country? The dramaturgy of war is the defining force of this opera: its destructive power and unpredictability make it understandable why the lovers Leonora and Alvaro lose each other and are only reunited in the moment of death.