Since its premiere at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1998, Luci mie traditrici (Oh My Betraying Eyes) has had over 100 performances in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. This summer the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and Staatsoper Berlin show the latest production by director Jürgen Flimm.

The opera was inspired by the murders by the Renaissance nobleman and composer Carlo Gesualdo of his wife and her lover. Composed in 1996, the opera Luci mie traditrici is among the most frequently performed works by Sicilian composer Salvatore Sciarrino, and has of become a symbol of his dramaturgical poetics.



Salvatore Sciarrino on Luci mie traditrici:
“Luci mie traditrici was meant to be a statement on the reform of theater. The use of the voices, the invention and maturation of the vocal style allow us to delve once again into the realm of theater rather than simply putting vocalists on stage and having them sing, which is something I’ve never really been interested in.

My theater is ‘post-cinema’ theater, beginning with the way the scenes are laid out – they proceed by dry blocks that ‘subtract’ in order to get the point across. Luci mie traditrici is an opera in the fullest sense of the term. It doesn’t go back to pre-existing models, nor is it sullied by cheap rhetoric. Its strength lies in the expression of song, in the creation of a vocal style – a newly invented style.”


Previous performances
Schwetzingen, Rokokotheather, Schwetzinger Festpiele (1998, world première)
Vienna, Wiener Festwochen Teatro Odeon (1998)
Lucerne (1999)
Paris, Festival d’Automne (2000)
Bruxelles, Festival Ars Musica (2001)
New York, Lincoln Center (2001)
Wuppertal, Opernhaus (2002)
Madrid, Festival Musica de Hoy (2002)
Kufstein, Tiroler Festspiele (2002)
Turino, Settembre Musica Festival (2002)
Berlin, Berliner Festpiele (2002)
Koblenz, Theater der Stadt (2003)
Warsaw, Warsaw Autumn Festival (2006)
Lyon, Festival Amour Soupçon (2007)
Salzburg, Salzburg Festival (2008)
Wien, Theater an der Wien (2008)
Madrid, Teatro de la Zarzuela (2009)
Poznan, Festival Nostalgia (2009)
Berlin, MaerzMusik (2010)
Montepulciano, Festival Internazionale Cantiere d’arte (2010)
Frankfurt, Oper (2011)
Buenos Aires, Teatro San Martín (2011)
Passau, Landestheater (2011)    
Moscow, Na Strastnom (2012)
Buxton, Music Wales Theater, tour in UK (2013)
Tongyeong (South Korea), International Music Festival (2014)
Göteborg, Opera Musikteater Verket (2014)
Vienna, Wiener Festwochen (2015)
Bologna, Teatro Comunale (2016)
Berlin, Staatsoper im Schiller Theater (2016)
    

Luci mie traditrici (1996-98)
Opera in 2 acts
Libretto by Salvatore Sciarrino from Il tradimento per l’onore by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini (1664), with an elegy by Claude Le Jeune (1608)
Characters: LA MALASPINA, s. - L’OSPITE, c. - UN SERVO DELLA CASA, t. - IL MALASPINA, br. – voice behind the stage, s.
2 fl. bcl. 2 bn. 2 Sxf.c.  2 Tpt. 2 Trbn.  Perc. /  Strings
Duration: 75’ ca.