Amalia. Nello Santi conducted a 1982 Zurich Opera production with Giorgio Zancanaro and Cristina Deutekom. In the US, the San Diego Opera staged it during their "Verdi Festival" in summer 1984 and brought in both Joan Sutherland and her husband. 21st century There was a staging in Palermo in 2001 with Dimitra Theodossiou, Roberto Servile, and Carlo Ventre. The next year the Royal Opera Covent Garden presented a new production featuring Delligatti, René Pape, Franco Farina and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. I masnadieri is naturally programmed by companies presenting every one of Verdi's operas: it appeared in Bilbao as part of the ABAO company's 2003/2004 "Tutto Verdi" series, at the Sarasota Opera in 2006 in its "Verdi Cycle" series, and at Teatro Regio di Parma in its 2013 "Festival Verdi". The work has in recent years also been in the repertory of Zurich Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and Bavarian State Opera in Munich. The latter three stagings were filmed in 2008, 2012 and 2020, respectively, and have been issued as DVDs or streamed online. I masnadieri was revived in Munich in 2023. Roles Synopsis Place: Germany Time: between 1755 and 1757. Act 1 Scene 1: A tavern on the borders of Saxony. During a break from his studies at Dresden University, Carlo, the elder and favourite son of Count Massimiliano Moor, has fallen amongst thieves, literally. He has become a member of a notorious gang of highwaymen and cut-throats who terrorise the local community by robbery, extortion and rowdy singing at all hours of the day and night. But already Carlo has tired of living a life of depravity and longs to return home to be with Amalia, his gentle cousin and lifelong sweetheart (O mio castel paterno / "O castle of my fathers"). He is awaiting the reply to a letter he has sent to his father begging for forgiveness for his recent misdemeanors. Rolla and the other robbers arrive with the longed-for reply from the Count. Carlo's joy soon turns to sorrow, and then anger (Nell'argilla maledetta / "Let my wrath plunge these swords into the accursed clay"), as he finds that the letter is not from his father but from his younger brother Francesco, who warns him not to return home because, far from having forgiven Carlo, the old Count is intent on punishing him and locking him away.