Barberio Corsetti's Dreamlike La Sonnambula at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Giorgio Barberio Corsetti directs a new production of Vincenzo Bellini's La Sonnambula at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, in collaboration with the Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari where it previously premiered. The staging features video animations by Gianluigi Toccafondo, who has designed posters for the Opera di Roma since 2014. Corsetti emphasizes the opera's themes of transition from childhood to adulthood and repressed desires expressed in dreams. The set includes a giant armchair, chest of drawers, and desk that double as mountains for the chorus, while miniature dollhouse versions of the same furniture are manipulated by characters to reveal their inner worlds. Toccafondo's animated backdrops synthesize characters' emotions through line and color modulation. Conductor Speranza Scapucci leads a cast featuring Jessica Pratt as Amina and Valentina Varriale as Lisa. Amina, falsely accused and rejected by her fiancé, must prove her innocence, with her sleepwalking symbolizing a liminal state between passion and childhood fantasy. The production includes a giant teddy bear between acts, and a striking scene where Amina first appears as a sleepwalker in white, singing atop furniture before disappearing into a drawer. The opera explores themes of calumny, innocence, and growth, with Amina ultimately abandoning her dolls as she becomes a woman.