Italian artists from the Laboratorio Lirico Europeo of Milan will be performing excerpts from popular operettas in a concert at the Manoel Theatre, Valletta, on December 12, at 7.30 p.m. aptly entitled Serata all’Operetta.
Tenor Andrea Bragiotto, soprano Barbara Fasol, soprano/soubrette Tiziana Scaciga della Silva, traditional operetta comico Walter Rubboli and pianist/musical director Debora Mori, will inter-pret scenes from some of the best-loved examples of the operetta genre.
The programme includes lively selections from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Boccaccio by Franz von Suppè, La Principessa della Czarda by Emmerich Kalman, La Danza delle Libellule and The Merry Widow by Franz Lehar, La Duchessa del Bal Tabarin by Leon Bard/Carlo Lombardo, La Périchole by Jacques Offenbach, The Geisha by Sydney Jones, The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, the famous Spanish zarzuela, La Tabernera del Puerto by Pablo Sorozabal, Il Paese dei Campanelli and Cin ci La by Carlo Lombardo, The White Horse Inn by Ralph Benatzky and Robert Stolz, and Mario Costa’s Scugnizza.
Rubboli also performs as basso-buffo and comprimario in the operas Rigoletto and Manon Lescaut, while he will shortly be the capocomico in The White Horse Inn by Ralph Benatzky.
Fasol has also sung various operatic roles, among them Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Lisa in Bellini’s La Sonnambula, Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Nella in Gianni Schicchi and Musetta in La Boheme, both by Puccini.
Bragiotto has performed the main roles in Don Giovanni, L’Elisir d’Amore, La Traviata and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and in various operettas.
Scaciga della Silva has just performed in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur and Bizet’s Carmen at the Teatro dell’Opera of Milan, and in February she will sing the role of Mimì in La Bohème in various Italian opera houses.
This tribute to operetta, which will be presented by Pat Salomone, is being produced by Fiesole Artistic Productions and the Italian Cultural Institute.
Booking is open at the Manoel Theatre in Old Theatre Street, Valletta, tel. 2124 6389; e-mail: bookings@teatrumanoel.com.mt.
The Italian singers will also present an operetta evening on Tuesday, December 13, at 6.30 p.m. at a Republic Day event in Gozo organised together with the Department of Culture and supported by the Ministry of Gozo.