Maltese mezzo-soprano Sandra Scicluna, who for 10 years studied with soprano Antoinette Miggiani, is back in Florence where she is studying privately with Patrizia Morandini.

Both performances were full and were well received by the finicky, opera-mad Italian public- Albert Storace

Morandini was artistic director in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana in two performances on August 4 and 5.

There was a different cast for each performance and the music directors were Mario Lardieri and Claudio Bianchi respectively.

In the second performance, Scicluna sang the leading role of Santuzza.

The cast consisted of tenor Filippo Rofi (Turiddu), Maltese baritone Lewis Cassar as Alfio, mezzo-soprano Raffaella Iannone as Lola and Elisabetta Vuocolo as Mamma Lucia.

The production was set in the 1950s/60s and staged at the Chiostro di Santi Simone e Giuda at Corniola, near Empoli.

Scicluna says both performances were full and were well-received by the finicky, opera-mad Italian public. She enjoyed living to the full the varying emotions generated by her role and also by those of the other characters.

The cloister setting was particularly conducive toward creating major audience involvement. For example, while Santuzza hides and watches behind a column, she sees Turiddu serenading Lola under a window. A most climactic point, the Easter procession, unfolds all around the audience.

Regarding her own performance, she says her singing and interpretation were received very well with shouts of “brava”. The duet with Turiddu and the Ineggiamo sequence were also high points of the performance and she cherishes being described as “strepitosa” in the highly-charged Voi Lo Sapete O Mamma.

An added boost for her andthe cast which motivated them to give their best was that they felt the audience was very responsive. After all, this work is a prime example of Italian operatic realism; that is the effect the composer strove for, and achieved.