L’Arlesiana

Cilea's Arlesiana is a girl from Arles the audience never sees: she exists only in what the people around Federico say about her, and he cannot stop wanting her. His mother and the girl who does love him try to talk the thought out of him, and fail. Weimar gives the four-act version, in Italian with German surtitles, and in concert — with nothing staged, Federico's lament, the one number the opera is remembered for, has to carry the evening on the voice alone.