Umberto Giordano’s opera Siberia with its libretto by Puccini’s successful librettist Luigi Illica (La bohème, Tosca) premiered in 1903 at La Scala as a replacement of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, which was not finished at the time. Madama Butterfly came out in Milan shortly after Siberia and flopped completely. Umberto Giordano, however, briefly became a public favourite. Shortly after successful re-runs on important theatres, including Buenos Aires, New York and São Paulo, Siberia could not maintain its position in repertoire although Gabriel Fauré designated the second act as “one of the most remarkable and captivating that modern dramatic music can offer.” This opera rarity performed at Bregenz Festival “is musical narrative theatre in perfection” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) in which “Uryupin leads the agile Wiener Symphoniker through the score with a sense for delicately tinted colours. Ambur Braid sings the challenging part of Stephana with bravour” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).

Cast:
- Stephana: Ambur Braid
- Nikona: Fredrika Brillembourg
- La fanciulla, The Old Woman: Clarry Bartha
- Vassili: Alexander Mikhailov
- Gleby: Scott Hendricks
- Prince Alexis: Omer Kobiljak
- Ivan, The Cossack: Manuel Günther
- Mishinsky, The Disabled: Michael Mrosek
- Walinoff, The Governer: Unnstein Árnason
- The Captain, The Guard: Stanislav Vorobyov

Staged by: Vasily Barkhatov
Recording date: Bregenz Festival, August 2022
Sound format: PCM Stereo, DTS-HD MA 5.1
Picture: NTSC, 16:9 / 1080i
Subtitles: Italian (original language), German, English, Korean, Japanese
Booklet: English, German, French
Total running time: 112 mins