The Manoel Theatre BoV Performing Arts Festival comes to a close next weekend with the opera Il Trovatore.
Directed by Alena Peskova, the production will feature artists from the Silesian Theatre in Opava and the Malta Philarmonic Orchestra under the direction of conductor Damiano Binetti.
Il Trovatore is one of Giuseppe Verdi’s most renowned operas.
“We have decided to dedicate three whole nights to this production because we are all aware of the popularity that Verdi’s music enjoys among the Maltese,” said Ray Attard, Manoel Theatre CEO.
Il Trovatore has a complex plot, brimming with drama and with many characters vying for prominence and attention.
The story turns on a grisly case of infanticide, gypsies and witches burned at the stake.
Il Trovatore is an opera in four acts based on an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano who in turn had based it on the play El Trovador (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez.
First performed at Teatro Apollo in Rome on January 19, 1853, Il Trovatore was the second major output during Verdi’s ‘middle period’ following the world premier of Rigoletto in 1851. The third masterpiece was La Traviata, staged two months after Il Trovatore on March 6, 1853, at La Fenice in Venice.
Damiano Binetti is conductor and artistic director of the Silesian Theatre. Born in Italy, Binetti originally trained as a singer in Italy and in the Czech Republic. In 1991 he travelled to Prague where he studied conducting.
Since 1994, he has been musical director of the Prague Madrigalists. Binetti has a great interest in early music both from the symphonic and opera repertoire.
After having completed her studies at Prague’s Dance Conservatory in 1994 with a graduation programme in the Estates Theatre that included her own choreography Time in Motion, Peskova joined the Musical Theatre in Karlin for one season and later worked at the J.K.Tyl Theater in Pilsen from 1995 to 1999.
Since that time she has been a freelance dancer and choreographer with a number of tours across Europe, Japan and South America. She continues her collaboration with the J.K.Tyl Theatre, State Opera Prague, Czech Chamber Philharmonic and the Vienna Walzer orchestra, preparing choreographies for operas, musicals, festivals, art openings and fashion shows – where she also appears.
She is also the founder of the independent association of professional dancers Ultra-Minimal-Ballet (UMB). Since September 2010 she has been artistic director and choreographer of the Ballet company DFXŠ in Liberec.
The three performances of Il Trovatore are on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7.30 p.m.
As part of the Toi Toi Education Programme there is a 40-minute pre-show talk in the Studio Theatre before each performance at 6.45 p.m. There are 40 places available for these talks and they can be booked when seats for the concert are bought.
Tickets may be reserved online at www.teatrumanoel.com.mt, via the booking office on 2124 6389 or via e-mail bookings@teatrumanoel.com.mt.