La sonnambula

Set in a rural setting in the Swiss Alps, also idealized by the romantics in works such as Guillem Tell, La fille du regiment or Giselle, this "semiseria opera" in two acts confronts the people of these quiet regions with the miseries of the humanity: mistrust, hostility and ostracism before the uncertain shadow of a vulgar suspicion.

The town becomes the third major protagonist of the opera, showing the rural harshness that manifests itself in more rancor than solidarity and more misery than abundance. The protagonist's somnambulism thus acts as the jolt necessary to wake everyone up from a collective nightmare, while providing the climax to a poetic score that ended up becoming one of the most celebrated and enduring icons of the belcantism The phenomenon of sleep allows the realistic aspects of the character to be overcome, similar to the famous scenes of madness so beloved by the romantics, and its benign nature can lead to the happy ending that the "semiseria opera" and sentimental romance call for. of the time