I Puritani - Schedule, Program & Tickets

After the splendours of Sonnambula and Norma, it seemed impossible to write yet a masterpiece; yet the Puritans contain pages of absolute inspiration and show off happy melodic ideas and moments marked by an expansive sentimentality, typically Italian. Bellini seems oriented towards ways more open to the influences of romantic aesthetics without renouncing his unmistakable melodic lyricism. Despite the romance and warrior background, the work has its own elegiac color which is expressed in Elvira's madness and Arturo's passion. The original drama, although cumbersome and complicated, offered a great deal of theatrical situations that fascinated the composer and the librettist; in particular the heroic-patriotic theme, the amorous and the madness one. The main protagonist of the work is the orchestra, which takes on a more expressive tone than the previous works, both in the preludes and in the harmony and palette of colors and timbres. The composer makes a systematic use of the thematic references, as was used in the French theater of the time, and of typical expedients of the grand-opéra such as the spectacular collective historical paintings or the use of off-stage sounds, intended to create suggestive spatial effects .

Subject to change.