UN GIORNO DI REGNO | GIUSEPPE VERDI
CHRIS HOPKINS, CONDUCTOR | CHRISTOPHER ALDEN, DIRECTOR | GARSINGTON OPERA
📅 Streaming from April 11, 2025, at 19:00 CET (GMT+1)
📍 Watch free on OperaVision
🔹 Free streaming
🔹 Available until October 11, 2025, at 12:00 CET
🔹 Recorded on July 5, 2024
🔹 Sung in Italian, with subtitles in English and Italian
Cast highlights:
– Il Cavaliere di Belfiore: Joshua Hopkins
– La Marchesa del Poggio: Christine Rice
– Giulietta di Kelbar: Madison Leonard
– Edoardo di Sanval: Oliver Sewell
– La Rocca: Grant Doyle
– Il Barone di Kelbar: Henry Waddington
– Philharmonia Orchestra and Garsington Opera Chorus
Garsington Opera revives Verdi’s rarely performed comic opera Un giorno di regno in a new production directed by Christopher Alden, conducted by Chris Hopkins, and streamed free on OperaVision.
First premiered in 1840, this early Verdi work stands out as one of the few comedies in his catalogue. Written in the style of opera buffa, it follows Cavaliere di Belfiore, who is impersonating a king for reasons of state and becomes entangled in the lives and loves of those around him. The plot spins through mistaken identities, interrupted weddings, and personal revelations, all within a single day of assumed royal power.
Beneath the farcical surface, Alden’s production highlights the opera’s more serious undercurrents, presenting Belfiore as a subversive figure who quietly dismantles power structures from within. With Joshua Hopkins as Belfiore, Christine Rice as the Marchesa, and Madison Leonard as Giulietta, the cast brings energy and depth to this unusual corner of Verdi’s early output.
OVERVIEW
At the heart of Un giorno di regno lies a deceptively light comedy built around power, identity, and the longing for personal freedom. An ordinary man is thrust into a royal disguise, using it to challenge social conventions and resist imposed authority. Through the entangled lives of two women fighting to marry for love, Verdi explores how humor can reveal the deeper currents of control, gender dynamics, and societal expectations.
Though composed early in Verdi’s career, during a period of intense personal loss, the opera brings surprising moments of sincerity and insight beneath its comic surface. Director Christopher Alden draws attention to its enduring relevance—raising questions of leadership, autonomy, and the absurdity of power plays that still resonate today.
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