Gioacchino Rossini: L'occasione fa il ladro

A thunderstorm with consequences: Count Alberto, who is traveling to his wedding, mixes up his suitcase with Don Parmenione’s when they both seek shelter from a thunderstorm. Alberto continues his journey with the wrong suitcase, while the impostor Parmenione discovers in the count’s luggage a portrait of a beautiful woman, complete with a matching name and address. On the spur of the moment, he sets out to woo the beauty. Berenice, meanwhile, who had to promise her father on his deathbed that she would marry the count—a man she knew nothing about—wants to put her future husband to the test: she approaches him disguised as a chambermaid. But with the simultaneous arrival of Parmenione and the real count, she suddenly finds herself facing two suitors. Although Rossini’s *L’occasione fa il ladro* is presented as a one-act *burletta per musica*, its plot is just as rich in comic confusion and twists as his great *opere buffe*. The enormous success of the premiere in Venice can, of course, also be attributed to the fireworks of melodies and the rapidly escalating dramatic structure of the ensemble pieces, which more than once lead straight into collective musical madness.

The students of the opera school sing and perform in sets designed by Eckhard Reschat and accompanied by the university symphony orchestra under the direction of Rasmus Baumann. Sonja Wassermann directs.

A production of the HMDK Stuttgart