At the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, the 2008 Opera and Ballet Season continuee with its fifth performance: La sonnambula, melodramma in two acts with libretto by Felice Romani and music by Vincenzo Bellini, in a staging by the Arena di Verona.

The beautiful masterpiece will be performed by two prestigious casts: Simone Alaimo/Riccardo Zanellato (14th, 18th) (Il conte Rodolfo), Gabriella Colecchia (Teresa), Eglise Gutierrez/Elisabetta Scano (14th, 18th) (Amina), Antonino Siragusa/Mario Zeffiri (14th) (Elvino), Sandra Pastrana/Sivan Goldman (14th, 18th) (Lisa), Gabriele Nani (Alessio), Max René Cosotti (Un notaro).

The Cagliari staging, production, scenery and costumes is the work of Hugo de Ana, light designer Paolo Mazzon.

The Teatro Lirico Orchestra and Chorus are conducted by Maurizio Benini. The Chorus Master is Fulvio Fogliazza.

The last performance of La sonnambula in Cagliari dates back to 1987 where it was staged at the Auditorium del Conservatorio. It will also be performed on Sunday 12th October at 5pm (session D), Tuesday 14th October at 8.30pm (session F), Wednesday 15th October at 8.30pm (session B), Friday 17th October 8.30pm (session C), Saturday 18th October at 7pm (session G), Sunday 19th October at 5pm (session E).

La sonnambula was first performed with enormous success at the Teatro Carcano, Milan on 6th march 1831 with Giuditta Pasta and Giambattista Rubini in the roles of Amina and Elvino, the most well-known and ideal singers for the parts at the time. Bellini was full of praise for their performance and declared them “two angels who could transport the audience into a state bordering on distraction”. La sonnambula is an idillic, classical and intense melodramma with an extremely fine, lyrical musicality and tense with pure “canto”, suspended between Arcadia and Romanticism. It is a combination of tender and melancholic sentiments and of tragic and moving passion, in a natural uncontaminated and innocent atmosphere and humanity which clearly represent the artistic experience of the composer. The charming staging by Hugo de Ana, at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari goes back to January 2007. Through fascinating tableaux vivants, references to 17th century Romantic painting and refined visual projections, it is a tribute to Luchino Visconti. Visconti produced the memorabile performance of Sonnambula in March at the Scala di Milano with the magnificant Maria Callas.

The 2008 Opera and Ballet Season has been subsidized by the Fondazione Banco di Sardegna, Poste Italiane, Energit S.p.A. and organised with the collaboration of the Azienda e Vigneto Feudi della Medusa.

La sonnambula will be performed on:
- Friday 10th October, 8.30pm – band A
- Sunday 12th October, 5pm – band D
- Tuesday 14th October, 8.30pm – band F
- Wednesday 15th October, 8.30pm – band B
- Friday 17th October, 8.30pm – band C
- Saturday 18th October, 7pm – band G
- Sunday 19th October, 5pm – band E