Performance History
With its pastoral setting and story, La sonnambula was an immediate success and is still regularly performed. The title role of Amina (the titular sleepwalker) with its high tessitura is renowned for its difficulty, requiring a complete command of trills and florid technique.
The opera was first given in London on 28 July 1831 at the King's Theatre in London and in New York on 13 November 1835 at the Park Theatre. In the 20th century, the role of Amina was sung by Maria Callas in the now-famous 1955 production by Luchino Visconti at La Scala.
Read more about this topic: La Sonnambula
Famous quotes containing the words performance and/or history:
“True balance requires assigning realistic performance expectations to each of our roles. True balance requires us to acknowledge that our performance in some areas is more important than in others. True balance demands that we determine what accomplishments give us honest satisfaction as well as what failures cause us intolerable grief.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“I think that Richard Nixon will go down in history as a true folk hero, who struck a vital blow to the whole diseased concept of the revered image and gave the American virtue of irreverence and skepticism back to the people.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)