Salvatore Sciarrino’s intense and compact opera Luci mie traditrici first performance was on 19th May 1998 at the Schwetzinger Festpiele under the German title Die tödliche Blume (The Deadly Flower). The Libretto is based on madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo's notorious murder of his wife and her lover in 1590.

The composer Salvatore Sciarrino has created a compressed story of love and death, beauty and decay. Sciarrino’s music is decidedly avant-garde, and he is known for his use of isolated sonorities, extended playing techniques, frequent silences, and the ironic or confrontational quotation of previous music or stories. For this love story of a single day he creates a form of music which expresses the finest nuances of feeling of the human soul. In parallel with the condensing of the original drama in time, the musical language of the music drama acts as a crystallization of the feelings of love.

The co-production of the Oper Frankfurt with the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano has been recognized as the finest production of this work presented to date, with compelling staging by German director Christian Pade.

The striking young cast is led by Croatian mezzo-soprano Nina Tarandek, who is a member of the Opera Studio at Oper Frankfurt. A name to be remembered!

Stage director: Christian Pade
Stage design and costumes: Alexander Lintl

Recorded at the Cantiere di Montepulciano, July 29/31 - August 1, 2010

Bonus: Making of Luci Mie Traditrici, including interviews with Salvatore Sciarrino, Marco Angius, Christian Pade, Detlev Glanert, Alexander Lintl, Christian Miedl and Nina Tarandek.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9
Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Region code: 0
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Japanese
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Runnning time: 100 mins (Performance 70 mins + Bonus 30 mins)
Available Worldwide