As a textbook example of a bel canto opera, Vincenzo Bellini's Nightwalker, which premiered in Milan in 1831, sends goose bumps through the air with its beautiful singing. The beauty of the melodies and the absolute focus on the singers' voices and abilities allow a deep insight into the emotional drama of the protagonists. Director Helen Malkowsky (most recently Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas and Brecht's The Threepenny Opera) meticulously dissects the emotional life of the supposedly superficial characters and gives her modern take on the outsider Amina.

A village idyll in the Swiss Alps. Amina comes from a modest background and is about to marry Elvino, one of the richest farmers in the village. However, when she wakes up one night in the bedroom of Count Rodolfo, who has returned incognito, the deceptive idyll is shattered. Elvino breaks off his engagement to her and turns to his former lover; Amina's reputation is gone forever. Gradually, however, it transpires that appearances are deceptive - as they often are...