Sergei Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel is one of the most transgressive and chilling creations of 20th-century opera, and it is being presented at the Teatro Real in a groundbreaking production directed by Gustavo Gimeno and Calixto Bieito, featuring the voices of Ausrine Stundyte and Leigh Melrose.
Based on the novel by the Russian symbolist writer Valery Bryusov, the opera tells the harrowing story of Renata, a young woman possessed by evil spirits since the supernatural appearance, in her childhood, of Madiel, the fiery angel. Stage director Calixto Bieito transposes the action of this ambiguous and unsettling libretto, which explores themes of sexual violence, psychological disorders, perversity, and religious fervor, to a house of horrors in the 1950s, where only a bicycle serves as a reminder of the protagonist's lost innocence.
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Opera in five acts
Music and libretto by Sergéi Prokófiev (1891-1953)
Libretto based on the homonymous novel (1907), by Valery Bryusov
Premiered in the Teatro La Fenice of Venecia, November 25,1954
Premiered in the Teatro Real
New production in the Teatro Real, in collaboration with the Opernhaus of Zúrich
Artistic team
Condutor I Gustavo Gimeno
Stage director I Calixto Bieito
Stage designer I Rebecca Ringst
Costume designer I Ingo Krügler
Light designer I Franck Evin
Video designer I Sarah Derendinger
Dramatist I Beate Breidenbach
Chorus Master I Andrés Máspero
Cast
Renata I Ausrine Stundyte
Ruprecht I Leigh Melrose
Agrippa von Nettesheim / Mephistopheles I Dmitry Golovnin
The Mother Superior / Seer I Agnieszka Rehlis
The Inquisitor I Mika Kares
Innkeeper I Nino Surguladze
Faust I Dmitry Ulyanov
Jackob Glock / Doctor I Josep Fadò
Mathias / Innkeeper I Gerardo Bullón
Count Heinrich / The Father I Ernst Alisch
Waiter I David Lagares
Novice I | Estibaliz Martyn
Novice II | Anna Gomà
Teatro Real Chorus and Orchesta