COT opts to present the recitatives in English while keeping the sung portions in the original Italian, a format I don't usually care for but which makes sense with a rarity never before presented in Chicago. "Silla" is a very long opera (the original production is said to have lasted six hours, including a ballet not by Mozart), and Mitisek has cut the score back considerably to a practical running time of 2 1/2 hours, with a single intermission. The omissions include three arias, much dramatically irrelevant recitative and a minor character whose one aria is given to Silla –– Chicago Tribune