About the work
Opera in two acts by Alberto Ginastera to a libretto by Manuel Mujica Láinez, based on his own 1962 novel of the same name. It was first performed on 19 May 1967 at Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C., by the Opera Society of Washington, conducted by Julius Rudel and directed by Tito Capobianco.
Plot
On his deathbed, the Renaissance nobleman Pier Francesco Orsini, Duke of Bomarzo, relives in flashback a life shaped by physical deformity, failed relationships and a longing for immortality – including his own order to have his brother Maerbale killed. In revenge, Maerbale's son Nicolás has poisoned the supposed elixir of immortality that kills the duke. From Orsini's memories also emerges the famous mannerist sculpture garden he had built at Bomarzo.
Cultural significance
In the opera, Ginastera combines twelve-tone technique, microtonality and aleatoric writing with echoes of Baroque music and madrigals. Argentina's military government under Juan Carlos Onganía banned the opera's planned August 1967 premiere at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires over its explicit sexual content; it was not staged there until 1972.