ALL THE OPERA SEASON

 

 

One year after the Le Muse Theatre was reopened, the second opera season will be inaugurated on 18^th October with a highly significant event for contemporary music and symbolic for the Ancona theatre. The Concert for the Muses (Concerto per le Muse) (not included in the season ticket) is an opera commission that the theatre, thanks to the original idea of artistic director Claudio Orazi, has entrusted to nine Italian composers, each with the task of coming up with a piece to pay homage to each of the muses. Calliope will therefore be the inspiring muse for Paolo Furlani, Clio for Tonino Tesei, Erato for Fabrizio De Rossi Re, Euterpe for Alberto Colla, Melpomene for Giorgio Colombo Taccani, Polyhymnia for Francesco Antonioni, Thalia for Lucia Ronchetti, Terpsichore for Patrizio Esposito, and Urania for Roberta Vacca.  The Freon Ensemble will be conducted by Stefano Cardi. The initiative – to which RadioTre and RaiTrade are both set to take part in – was devised to pay tribute to creativity and sees the Le Muse Theatre as a setting open to contemporary composing, after the outstanding performance of Placido Domingo in his rendition of the Canto for peace set to music by Marco Tutino based on the Pope's prayer.

 

Opera returns to Le Muse in the form of magic by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, just as it did last year with Idomeneo. The chosen title is even more curious this time round, since the Italian audience is not very familiar with this particular opera: The Shepherd King (Il Re Pastore) (performances scheduled for 8^th, 11^th and 14^th November) is in fact a unique occasion to discover one of the most interesting works Mozart composed in his early years, the last homage to the Salzburg court composed in 1775 at the tender age of 19, a sequence of splendid arias with a superb orchestral accompaniment and vital instruments such as the violin and the flute.

Mozart's work will be interpreted by some young, yet established singers, such as the sopranos Cinzia Forte (Elisa), Raffaella Milanesi (Aminta), Giorgia Milanesi (Tamiri) and the tenors Cristiano Olivieri (Agenore) and Stefano Ferrari (Alessandro). The performance will be directed by one of the most interesting producers from the young Italian generation, Daniele Abbado, in conjunction with Silvano Cova for the stage sets and Carla Teti for costumes, whereas the orchestra will be conducted by Corrado Rovaris.

 

The second opera in the season is one of the most fascinating works of Giuseppe Verdi, Un ballo in maschera (performances scheduled for 10^th, 13^th and 16^th December), which is set to be a truly interesting production. As a matter of fact, the production has been entrusted to one of the most original producers in Italian theatre, Giancarlo Cobelli, who, with the help of the stage designer Antonio Fiorentino and costume designer Alessandro Ciammarughi, intends to offer an intriguing rendition of Verdi's truly passionate opera. A first-class director, namely Donato Renzetti, will head a singing company that is not without its fair share of surprises, including Riccardo performed by Marco Berti, a tenor with an astonishing voice that is a rising star among all major theatres, as well as Tatiana Serjan's Amelia, a soprano from the East, who has established her success following her important performance as Lady Macbeth at the Regio in Turin. The baritone Stefano Antonucci (Renato) completes the cast of this brand new production of Verdi's Ballo.

 

On 20^th and 21^st December, to celebrate the bicentenary anniversary of Hector Berlioz's birth, Le Muse will host the rare performance of the L’enfance du Christ oratorio, one of the most suggestive creations of holy inspiration dating back to the middle of the Nineteenth Century, offered by the Marche-based orchestra and choir guided by Keri-Lynn Wilson's baton, the American conductor whose praise was already confirmed in Donizetti's Lucia last season. This production is offered in conjunction with the “Guido Michelli” Friends of Music Society and the Marche Regional Orchestra Foundation.

 

The last item on the playbill is Giacomo Puccini's TOSCA (performances scheduled for 10^th, 13^th and 16^th January 2004), among the most beloved and frequently performed operas, which in this case involves a version that is anything but predictable. The performance – another new Le Muse Theatre stage set in co-production with the Arena Foundation of Verona – in fact includes a refined artist, Giovanni Agostinucci as the producer, stage designer and costume designer, while the interpretation of the charming soprano Amarilli Nizza, as Tosca, is yet to be discovered, as is that of the tenor Valter Borin, in the role of Cavaradossi, beside the established voice of the baritone Alberto Mastromarino as Scarpia, directed by Ottavio Marino.

 

As always, the Marche Philharmonic Orchestra and the “Vincenzo Bellini” Marche Choir, trained by Carlo Morganti, will feature in the Ancona theatre productions.

 

PROGRAMME

 

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Info: +39(0)71.52525