Watching linked videos is only available to logged-in DONORS
Become a donor for as little as 10 Swiss Francs (~ 13$) for website lifetime
and get AD-FREE too.
DONATE HERE
FULL SILLA (Handel) Chicago 2025 Chicago Summer Opera
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Silla or Lucio Cornelio Silla
- Composer: Handel George Frideric aka Händel Georg Friedrich
- Libretto: Giacomo Rossi Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois
- Recorded: July 9 & 12, 2025
- Type: Staged Opera Live
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
In a world grappling with rising authoritarianism, contested democracies, and mass protest movements, it may seem unlikely that a rarely performed opera from 1713 could speak to our current political climate. Yet George Frideric Handel’s Silla—a work composed under the shadow of papal censorship in Rome—tells a story that feels startlingly contemporary.
At the heart of Silla is a Roman dictator who abuses power for personal and political gain. Lucius Cornelius Silla (or Sulla), based loosely on the historical Roman general, is portrayed as a man who uses his authority to pursue forbidden love, crush dissent, and manipulate loyalty. He is surrounded by characters who resist his tyranny—moral citizens like Claudio and even his wife Metella, who refuse to bow to corrupt authority even at great personal cost.
Though composed over 300 years ago, Silla resonates today through its central themes of tyranny, betrayal, and justice. Across multiple continents, we are witnessing the steady erosion of democratic norms by leaders who increasingly resemble Silla: strongmen who rewrite constitutions, persecute political opponents, and centralize power. Frankly, the world is facing a dangerous flirtation with authoritarianism.
Like Silla, many of today’s leaders do not begin their rise to power with overt tyranny. They often emerge from legitimate systems, gradually undermining them through fear, control, and disinformation. In the opera, Silla’s rise is from a legitimate victory that spirals quickly into a dictatorship.
His personal obsession—his desire to possess not just Celia and Flavia, but Rome itself, as well as his childlike impulsivities—drives his descent into cruelty.
What Silla also captures is the importance—and cost—of resistance. Metella musters up the courage to fight fire with fire, essentially making a deal with evil forces to pressure Silla to her.
Silla’s ending—utopian or naïve depending on one’s view—raises a difficult but essential question: Can systems corrupted by power be restored through personal transformation or public pressure? Handel offers no easy answer, but the opera reminds us that justice and redemption are not mutually exclusive. Silla’s renouncement of power is an unsatisfying and aggravating “victory”, as it was historically as well.
Written in a time when public opera was banned in Rome, Silla itself is a testament to the enduring power of art under censorship. Today, we still turn to art to voice dissent and imagine alternatives- a world outside of our circumstances.
In this sense, Silla is not just historical artifact—it’s a warning and a reflection. It reminds us that tyranny, left unchecked, corrodes the human spirit. But it also reminds us that resistance is possible, and that even amidst darkness, the pursuit of justice remains a timeless—and timely—act.
– Marinette Gomez, Director of Silla