Deutsche Oper Berlin: Christoph Loy stages Ottorino Respighi’s “La fiamma”

Ottorino Respighi’s opera “La fiamma”, which celebrated triumphs in fascist Italy, can now be seen at the Deutsche Oper. In it, Christoph Loy stages the anatomy of mass hysteria.

Rome 1934, Italy’s fascism is flourishing, in Germany Chancellor Hitler is hijacking the reeling Weimar Republic. But Rome is intoxicated by a new great opera, to the delight of Benito Mussolini’s comrades. The Duce himself sits in the premiere of “La fiamma” (“The Flame”). Ottorino Respighi, who was born in Bologna, is the composer of this opera – a horror drama from the Middle Ages, filled with family hatred, outbursts of violence among the people and a final burning of the heroine as a witch.