Director Stefano Poda set the action in the mid 19th century. There’s not a piece of furniture in the whole show. Just a lot of slabs which change position as the opera progresses. There were also a lot of non-singing characters in strange poses who popped up here and there. This sort of staging is not the usual for the Parma house which typically stays close to the traditional. There’s nothing wrong with the staging that a first rate musical effort couldn’t overcome. But that effort was not forthcoming.