Fasten your seatbelts. The Norwegian phenomenon Lise Davidsen returns as Leonora, an aristocratic señora under the spell of an Inca prince roaming the Iberian peninsula incognito (Brian Jagde). They plan to elope, but at the moment of truth she dithers. Pop intervenes, catches a stray bullet, and expires with a curse. And that’s just Scene One. Based on a disorganized Spanish tragedy, Verdi’s romantic epic premiered in St. Petersburg, well ahead of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, which are not romantic in the same sense yet resemble La Forza del Destino in their narrative sweep and Rembrandtesque orchestral palette. —Matthew Gurewitsch