Gaetano Donizetti
Felice Romani after Victor Hugo

Lucrezia Borgia, brewer of poisons, adulteress and murderer, does her best to live up to an image of womankind created by men, and just as passionately she does whatever she can to find a new identity. Her son Gennaro falls in love at first sight with her – unaware that she is his mother. Overzealous, in the circle of his young friends, he disgraces her name. For this, he must repent: Don Alfonso, her husband, is determined to put his putative rival out of the way. Poison comes into play. But Gennaro is rescued – by her. Then poison is served up a second time, this time by her, indiscriminately, to the whole group of men. She doesn’t notice Gennaro’s presence until it is too late, and too late she confesses that she is his mother. Gennaro is dead. What remains is a pitiless trauma for the survivors.

Sung in Italian with German surtitles

Casts

Conductor Paolo Arrivabeni   
Stage Director Christof Loy   
Set Henrik Ahr   
Costumes Barbara Drosihn   
Lighting Joachim Klein   
Choreography Staff Thomas Wilhelm   
Dramaturgy Yvonne Gebauer 20./27. July 2014  
Andrea Schönhofer 20./27. July 2014  
Chor Stellario Fagone   

Don Alfonso John Relyea   
Donna Lucrezia Borgia Edita Gruberova   
Gennaro Pavol Breslik   
Maffio Orsini Silvia Tro Santafé   
Don Apostolo Gazella Christian Rieger   
Ascanio Petrucci Andrea Borghini   
Gubetta Goran Jurić   
Rustighello Dean Power   
Astolfo Tareq Nazmi   

Bayerisches Staatsorchester
The Chorus of Bayerische Staatsoper