Romance and laughter in opera
The BoV Opera Festival kicks off at the Manoel Theatre next week
It is likely that at this moment, somewhere in the world, an audience is watching an opera heroine sing herself to death. She's being stabbed, immolated, strangled, poisoned, buried alive and/or expiring from sheer passion. And we applaud with ardent fervour. This will not be the case in this year's edition of the BoV Opera Festival at the Manoel, since the programme is full of laughter and romance.
The BoV Opera Festival has become one of the most-awaited events in Malta's cultural calendar, attracting both local and foreign audiences to enjoy the magic of opera in the beautiful baroque setting. Opera is all about beautiful music, delightful singing, spectacular scenery, magnificent costumes and intense drama - providing an enjoyable escape from everyday life.
The festival will kick off with Rossini's Cenerentola performed by Teatro Borgatti di Cento from Italy with the National Philharmonic Orchestra under the musical direction of Michael Laus. This is the second time the Manoel Theatre is collaborating with Teatro Borgatti: last year Verdi's Falstaff received a very warm response from the audience.
Rossini composed Cenerentola, based on Charles Perrault's fairytale Cinderella, in 1817, when he was only 25 years old. The was written by Jacopo Ferretti. This opera is more than a children's fairy tale since Rossini preferred a more realistic style and his opera can be seen as a romantic drama about feelings of loneliness and poetry. In Malta, mezzo-soprano Giuliana Castellani will sing the role of Cinderella.
Cenerentola is an extraordinary example of the bel canto school - a musical term that indicates the vocal technique developed in the beginning of the 19th century. The main features of this school of composition are a smooth and even sound, a "sweet" timbre and skilful legato. With florid lines, vocal embellishments, amazing speed and spontaneity, Rossini composed some of the most unforgettable music in the operatic repertoire.
This year's festival will also include two one-act operas by Giacomo Puccini and Nino Rota performed by Operalaboratorio (Italy), once again with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi commemorates the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth. Puccini's most famous operas include La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly.
Gianni Schicchi is an ironic, modern and amusing opera, frequently performed around the world. It forms a part of Il Trittico (1918), a work composed of three one-act operas: a horrific episode (Il Tabarro), a sentimental tragedy (Suor Angelica) and the most popular of them, comedy Gianni Schicchi. It's an opera about misunderstanding, deceit and wit; the name-role is performed by the baritone Massimiliano Gagliardo. The story has a reference to Dante's Divina Commedia. The soprano aria, O babbino caro (Oh, my dearest daddy), is well-known and has featured in several movies.
For the last two years Maltese singers have participated in the project called I Solisti di Operalaboratorio, which is the result of a collaboration between the city of Palermo and the Teatro Massimo foundation. The project helps to nurture new talent and promotes young singers in European opera theatres, provides training and gives stage experience.
Last year, Charles Vincenti performed in the role of Nemorino in Operalaboratorio's production of L'Elisir D'Amore. This year a local singer, Kevin Caruana, will participate in Gianni Schicchi in the role of Betto. Kevin is a baritone with an impressive CV including master classes in Siena (Accademia Chigiana) and Salzburg (Mozarteum Sommerakedemie). He has appeared in operas such as Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Puccini's La Bohème and Verdi's Rigoletto. He performed his first two major roles last year, singing the only role in Cimarosa's one-man opera Il Maestro di Cappella and Papageno in Mozart's Magic Flute produced by the Manoel Theatre. His recent engagements have included a Mozart and Donizetti programme at the Théâtre Municipal in Bastia, France.
The double bill includes another interesting and amusing opera: Nino Rota's Notte di un Nevrastenico (A Night in the Life of a Neurotic) - presenting Salvatore Grigoli in the name-role.
Rota is first and foremost known for his film music: He won an Oscar for The Godfather II (1974). He composed music for more than 30 films, most memorable being his music for Fellini's films La strada (1954), 8˝ (1963), La Dolce Vita (1959) and Amarcord (1974). He also composed music for many theatre productions by Visconti, Zeffirelli and de Filippo.
Notte di un Nevrastenico is opera buffa - a genre separated from opera seria in the first half of the 18th century and that reserved the amusing and funny matters. Comic opera brings everyday people on the stage, talking about simple and strong emotions ? love, happiness and sorrow. The comic plot focusing on the obsessions of a man with a sleeping-problem is enhanced by simplicity and elegant lyricism, a characteristic of all Rota's music for stage and screen.
Lest we forget the gorgeously sung, dramatically performed death of the opera diva, and for the benefit of those who watch their death with rapt enjoyment over and over again, the Manoel Theate has put up an exhibition in the theatre's courtyard.
The exhibition is titled Aria del Morti. Six opera heroines, Alcina, Norma, Isolde, Aida, Cio-Cio-San, and Lulu, painted almost life-size on canvas banners, their flesh cold and morbid and their eyes empty will be looking down at the audience enjoying their drink during the intervals.
These paintings are the work of Mary M. Mazziotti, who was in Malta doing an artist-in-residence, sponsored by the Virginia Centre for Creative Arts in the United States and St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity.
• Cenerentola will be performed on Wednesday and Friday and the Puccini/Rota double bill on March 10 and 12. Tickets can be obtained by phone on 2124 6389, by e-mail: bookings@teatrumanoel.com.mt or online www.teatrumanoel.com.mt.
The BoV Opera Festival has become one of the most-awaited events in Malta's cultural calendar, attracting both local and foreign audiences to enjoy the magic of opera in the beautiful baroque setting. Opera is all about beautiful music, delightful singing, spectacular scenery, magnificent costumes and intense drama - providing an enjoyable escape from everyday life.
The festival will kick off with Rossini's Cenerentola performed by Teatro Borgatti di Cento from Italy with the National Philharmonic Orchestra under the musical direction of Michael Laus. This is the second time the Manoel Theatre is collaborating with Teatro Borgatti: last year Verdi's Falstaff received a very warm response from the audience.
Rossini composed Cenerentola, based on Charles Perrault's fairytale Cinderella, in 1817, when he was only 25 years old. The was written by Jacopo Ferretti. This opera is more than a children's fairy tale since Rossini preferred a more realistic style and his opera can be seen as a romantic drama about feelings of loneliness and poetry. In Malta, mezzo-soprano Giuliana Castellani will sing the role of Cinderella.
Cenerentola is an extraordinary example of the bel canto school - a musical term that indicates the vocal technique developed in the beginning of the 19th century. The main features of this school of composition are a smooth and even sound, a "sweet" timbre and skilful legato. With florid lines, vocal embellishments, amazing speed and spontaneity, Rossini composed some of the most unforgettable music in the operatic repertoire.
This year's festival will also include two one-act operas by Giacomo Puccini and Nino Rota performed by Operalaboratorio (Italy), once again with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi commemorates the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth. Puccini's most famous operas include La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly.
Gianni Schicchi is an ironic, modern and amusing opera, frequently performed around the world. It forms a part of Il Trittico (1918), a work composed of three one-act operas: a horrific episode (Il Tabarro), a sentimental tragedy (Suor Angelica) and the most popular of them, comedy Gianni Schicchi. It's an opera about misunderstanding, deceit and wit; the name-role is performed by the baritone Massimiliano Gagliardo. The story has a reference to Dante's Divina Commedia. The soprano aria, O babbino caro (Oh, my dearest daddy), is well-known and has featured in several movies.
For the last two years Maltese singers have participated in the project called I Solisti di Operalaboratorio, which is the result of a collaboration between the city of Palermo and the Teatro Massimo foundation. The project helps to nurture new talent and promotes young singers in European opera theatres, provides training and gives stage experience.
Last year, Charles Vincenti performed in the role of Nemorino in Operalaboratorio's production of L'Elisir D'Amore. This year a local singer, Kevin Caruana, will participate in Gianni Schicchi in the role of Betto. Kevin is a baritone with an impressive CV including master classes in Siena (Accademia Chigiana) and Salzburg (Mozarteum Sommerakedemie). He has appeared in operas such as Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Puccini's La Bohème and Verdi's Rigoletto. He performed his first two major roles last year, singing the only role in Cimarosa's one-man opera Il Maestro di Cappella and Papageno in Mozart's Magic Flute produced by the Manoel Theatre. His recent engagements have included a Mozart and Donizetti programme at the Théâtre Municipal in Bastia, France.
The double bill includes another interesting and amusing opera: Nino Rota's Notte di un Nevrastenico (A Night in the Life of a Neurotic) - presenting Salvatore Grigoli in the name-role.
Rota is first and foremost known for his film music: He won an Oscar for The Godfather II (1974). He composed music for more than 30 films, most memorable being his music for Fellini's films La strada (1954), 8˝ (1963), La Dolce Vita (1959) and Amarcord (1974). He also composed music for many theatre productions by Visconti, Zeffirelli and de Filippo.
Notte di un Nevrastenico is opera buffa - a genre separated from opera seria in the first half of the 18th century and that reserved the amusing and funny matters. Comic opera brings everyday people on the stage, talking about simple and strong emotions ? love, happiness and sorrow. The comic plot focusing on the obsessions of a man with a sleeping-problem is enhanced by simplicity and elegant lyricism, a characteristic of all Rota's music for stage and screen.
Lest we forget the gorgeously sung, dramatically performed death of the opera diva, and for the benefit of those who watch their death with rapt enjoyment over and over again, the Manoel Theate has put up an exhibition in the theatre's courtyard.
The exhibition is titled Aria del Morti. Six opera heroines, Alcina, Norma, Isolde, Aida, Cio-Cio-San, and Lulu, painted almost life-size on canvas banners, their flesh cold and morbid and their eyes empty will be looking down at the audience enjoying their drink during the intervals.
These paintings are the work of Mary M. Mazziotti, who was in Malta doing an artist-in-residence, sponsored by the Virginia Centre for Creative Arts in the United States and St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity.
• Cenerentola will be performed on Wednesday and Friday and the Puccini/Rota double bill on March 10 and 12. Tickets can be obtained by phone on 2124 6389, by e-mail: bookings@teatrumanoel.com.mt or online www.teatrumanoel.com.mt.