After the premiere in Milan, Giordano’s work was performed all over the world and achieved at least respectable successes. The libretto is by Luigi Illica. The focus of the plot is the courtesan Stephana, who follows her love Vassili to the Siberian prison camp. They attempt to escape but are betrayed. Giordano designed his opera in three acts in the verismo style. Fascinating Russian sounds from the Tsar’s hymn to the folksy song of the Volga tractors are embedded in the music.
Moscow-born director Vasily Barkhatov is responsible for staging the opera in Bregenz. He introduces a fourth character to the story, which focuses on the courtesan Stephana. An elderly woman who emigrated from Russia to Italy as a child begins a journey to her native country in the 1990s in search of her past and her parents’ grave. She reconstructs the events that lead her to a former prison camp, like an archaeologist, says Barkhatov.
Giordano drew a very personal, artistically naïve picture of Russia for Barkhatov. A time level is told about film clips, the past events about what is happening on stage. Director Elisabeth Sobotka said she was fascinated by the way Barkhatov wanted to tell it. “It all seems to come together in an artistically meaningful way. It gives me hope for the premiere,” she explained. “The tension between this naive music and the really crass text – it’s almost Dostoevsky – which is resolved in a special way, that’s what makes the effect,” says Sobotka about the piece.
“Siberia” is a “very Italian opera”
For the musical director Valentin Uryupin, “Siberia” is a “very Italian opera, perhaps the most Italian opera I know”, despite the setting, even if there are many Russian hints and elements. He spoke of a fascinating journey that demands a lot from the orchestra, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Incidentally, the two main productions of the Bregenz Festival not only revolve around courtesans, they are also historically connected: in 1903, the Milan Scala showed Giordano’s three-act work instead of the postponed premiere of “Madame Butterfly”.
Barkhatov erstmals in Vorarlberg
Moscow-born director Vasily Barkhatov is responsible for staging the opera. He is working in Bregenz for the first time. His compatriot Valentin Uryupin, who conducted the Bregenz House Opera two years ago (“Eugen Onegin”), will be at the conductor’s podium. Christian Schmidt designed the stage design, and Nicole von Graevenitz designed the costumes.