Il diluvio universale

Cast

Director Riccardo Frizza
Project, direction, live direction and costumes MASBEDO
Visual dramaturgy Mariano Furlani
Scenes 2050+
Set movements Sabino Civilleri Manuela Lo Sicco
Light designer Fiammetta Baldiserri

Characters and performers

Noè Nahuel Di Pierro
Jafet Nicolò Donini
Sem Davide Zaccherini
Cam Eduardo Martínez*
Tesbite Sabrina Gárdez*
Asfene Erica Artina
Abra Sophie Burns
Cadmo Enea Scala
Sela Giuliana Gianfaldoni
Ada Maria Elena Pepi*
Artoo Wangmao Wang

Donizetti Opera Orchestra
Chorus of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala
Chorus Master Salvo Sgrò

*Students of Bottega Donizetti

New production by the Donizetti Theatre Foundation
in collaboration with the GAMeC of Bergamo for Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of Culture 2023
We would like to thank the In Between Art Film Foundation and Motta&Partners for the support to the MASBEDO video production
Enel è Presenting Partner

Plot

Noè and his family, knowing that God is about to send the flood, prepare the ark just outside the city of Sennàar, doomed to be destroyed together with its sinful inhabitants. Noè has converted Sela, the wife of Cadmo, the leader of the city. Sela confesses to Noè that her husband despises her for her faith and has publicly offended God and defied him to punish him. Cadmo’s mercenaries arrive and want to burn the ark, Noè tries to stop them, and Sela decides to return to her husband to persuade him to desist. At this point, Ada, Sela’s confidante but secretly in love with Cadmo, enters the scene. Ada makes Cadmo believe that Sela is close to Noè not for religious reasons but because she is in love with the prophet’s eldest son, Jafet. Much to Ada’s satisfaction, Cadmo repudiates his wife and sentences to death Noè, his sons, and also Sela, who has found refuge with them. Noè warns Cadmo not to defy divine wrath and foretells him that a flood is coming, while Nature unleashes thunder and lightning. Cadmo reaches the ark intending to destroy it, while Noè, Jafet, and Sela are arrested.
Cadmo promises Ada to marry her after his wife’s death sentence is carried out. In a dramatic confrontation between Cadmo and Sela, she refuses to confess a betrayal she did not commit but accepts the punishment, only asking to be allowed to embrace her son one last time. Cadmo denies her and even claims that he will reveal to her son his mother’s guilt and marry Ada. Betrayed by her friend, repudiated by her husband, and cursed by her son, Sela pleads for divine mercy. Meanwhile, Noè is imprisoned in the ark. Sela arrives to bring him the news that Cadmo has decided to kill them all. Noè then predicts that the flood is imminent. As Cadmo and his court celebrate the upcoming wedding, Sela arrives. Cadmo is willing to take her back as long as she recants Noè’s God and curses him. To get her son back, Sela agrees to do it but, as she pronounces her abjuration, she is stricken by lightning and falls to the ground. The Flood is suddenly and violently unleashed, as everyone flees in chaos. When the storm subsides, the few survivors gather on the mountaintops, while Noè’s ark floats undamaged on the land that has been submerged by water.