Poster for ‘Rita’
opera by Gaetano Donizetti
client State Opera Rousse
August 2011
The Plot
Donizetti takes the traditional love-triangle plot and turns it on its head. The title character, Rita, believing her first husband, the tyrannical, cruel Gasparo, to be drowned at sea remarries the simple, meek Beppe. Rita keeps Beppe under her thumb with the same “Russian system” her first husband used. Not actually drowned at sea but having been in Canada and meeting a new woman, Gasparo returns to retrieve Rita’s death certificate, as he believes she died in a fire, so that he can marry his new love. Soon, however, Rita and Gasparo recognize one another, and Beppe sees a chance to escape his marriage.
The Production
The director Elena Stoyanova has a different approach on the typical comedy plot. She highlights the theme about hypocrisy and intrigue. The opera performers act behind a big translucent screen that projects their shadows and show their real figures at the same time giving a hint of the different insight.
