Love and Betrayal in a Legendary Seville

In the Jewish quarter of the Santa Cruz neighbourhood, close to Plaza de Doña Elvira, during the exclusion of the Hebrew community by the Christians, a Jewish conspiracy was devised in 1481. The plot envisioned taking over the city and, with the help of the Muslims, to throw the Christians out of Sevilla. La Bella Susona tells the story and legend of a beautiful Jewish girl from Seville in the 15th century, Susana Ben Susón. She betrays her father, Diego Susón, ringleader of the plot, by revealing the plan to her lover, a Christian knight of great lineage. The members of the conspiring group are arrested and executed. Susona, condemned by her people converts to Christianity only to be scorned by this other group that includes her beloved. Crushed by the consequences of her action, La Susona retires to a convent and orders that her head be hung above the door of her house when she dies. To quote its composer, Alberto Carretero: “Hers is a story of love, betrayal, and redemption. Her operatic persona is reflected in the context of that period, with the Jewish and Muslim worlds. This work pays tribute to Sevilla, as the city of opera”.

Carretero is a composer and Professor of composition at the “Manuel Castillo” Higher Music Conservatory of Sevilla. A musicologist, computer science engineer, journalist, and holder of a PhD in Performing Arts, he has won various awards including the INJUVE, the Leonardo (Music and Opera) scholarship of the BBVA Foundation; and has premiered his music in Carnegie Hall (New York), the IRCAM-Centro Pompidou of Paris and the Wien Modern Festival (Vienna). La Bella Susona debuts with the musical direction of Nacho de Paz– who conducts the ROSS- and the dramaturgy of Carlos Wagner, in a collaboration of the Teatro de la Maestranza with the Auditorio de Tenerife (Canary Islands). Daisy Press, Luis Cansino and José Luis Sola lead the cast for La Bella Susona in the first world premiere of an opera composed by a Sevillian in the Teatro de la Maestranza.

World premiere
Libretto by Rafael Puerto