Rossini’s Cenerentola returns to the Teatro Verdi Trieste

LYRIC AND BALLET SEASON 2023-2024

From 26 April to 5 May 2024

Gioachino Rossini

CINDERELLA

Playful drama in two acts with a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti

First performance: Teatro Valle, Rome, 25 January 1817

Music publishers: EF Kalmus & Co., New York

Concert Master and Director ENRICO CALESSO

Directed by PAOLO GAVAZZENI and PIERO MARANGHI

Costumes taken from NICOLETTA CECCOLINI

Video contributions by GIUSEPPE RAGAZZINI

Scenes and costumes inspired by the staging of EMANUELE LUZZATI

Choir Master PAOLO LONGO

Installation of the CARLO FELICE THEATER FOUNDATION IN GENOA

Characters and performers

Angelina

LAURA VERRECCHIA (26, 28/IV – 3, 5/V)

AYA WAKIZONO (27/IV – 4/V)

Don Ramiro

DAVE MONACO (26, 28/IV – 3, 5/V)

JUAN DE DIOS MATEOS (27/IV – 4/V)

Don Magnifico

CARLO LEPORE (26, 28/IV – 3, 5/V)

VINCENZO NIZZARDO (27/IV – 4/V)

Dandini

GIORGIO CAODURO (26, 28/IV – 3, 5/V)

PIERPAOLO MARTELLA (27/IV – 4/V)

Gold wings

MATTEO D’APOLITO

Thisbe CARLOTTA VICHI

Clorinda FEDERICA SARDELLA

Orchestra, Choir and Technicians of the Giuseppe Verdi Lyric Theater Foundation of Trieste

The successful and free reinterpretation of ’22 by the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa of the famous Cenerentola 1978 by Emanuele “Lele” Luzzati arrives in Trieste, a production which is still today an object of worship and a cornerstone of the history of musical theater thanks to the inexhaustible creativity of the very famous Genoese set designer, animator and illustrator, who gave Rossini’s beautiful fairy tale its unmistakable stylistic signature now known throughout the world. Director he made famous.

Thanks to the directing duo Paolo Gavazzeni & Piero Maranghi, eclectic art experimenters from La Scala to television and since the 1920s an unprecedented directing collective for rare works often kissed by an irresistible sense of humour, two years ago the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa freely recreated the spirit of Luzzati’s beautiful 1978 installation, so celebrated that it is now an object of art collection.

The very successful homage to one of the geniuses of the Italian twentieth century therefore arrives in Trieste from 26 April to 5 May, bringing Rossini’s Cenerentola back to the Julian public after a long absence: the strong comic accent of Gavazzeni and Maranghi’s direction has aroused a notable public success, on one of the rare theatrical occasions in which genuine laughter was combined with great applause and repeated sold outs, for a production that knows how to seduce and also brings an authentic added value of high entertainment to the opera.

On the podium for this special occasion, unmissable both for lovers of Rossini’s great music but also for visual arts enthusiasts, the Musical Director Enrico Calesso, for years now dedicated to constant research on the Mozartian and Rossini repertoire with a wide plethora of titles by the great Pesaro to his credit.

Cinderella is performed, as he tells it Enrico Calesso: “Following a practice that was already soon consolidated, the three numbers composed by Luca Agolini for the first performance are not performed in this Trieste production and the Scena and Aria of Alidoro which Rossini subsequently composed for Gioacchino Moncada (Rome, 1820) is inserted. . The work is performed without cuts in the closed numbers; some are instead included in the recitatives. Percussion is not present in the orchestra.”

And in the heart of an excellent cast of young voices but with great experience in the repertoire, such as Laura Verrecchia and Aya Wakizono for Angelina, or the tenor Dave Monaco already protagonist at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro for Don Ramiro and the Spanish Rossini tenor Juan de Dios Mateos, finally the Friulian and Triestine by adoption Giorgio Caoduro returns to the Teatro Verdi, today considered in the world one of the best bass-baritones in the Rossini repertoire and above all in the role of Dandini, which first brought him to international prominence. Alternating with Caoduro is the twenty-four year old Pierpaolo Martella from Lecce, already in the role at the Sferisterio in Macerata.

Don Magnifico will instead see on the Verdi stage the Neapolitan bass Carlo Lepore, who in his very solid thirty-year career has sung under the baton of conductors of the caliber of Abbado, Sir Colin Davis, Chailly, Mariotti, Pappano among many, and the consolidated bass- Calabrian baritone Vincenzo Nizzardo, another expert voice of the role.

Musical Director Enrico Calesso adds: “The very refined remodulation of the Opera Buffa genre is brought by Rossini already with Il Barbiere di Siviglia to a further dimension, thanks to the introduction of new character contrasts and a more complex psychological characterization of the characters, with moments of melancholy, anxiety and suffering rendered musically in an admirable and typical way of serious opera. With La Cenerentola this contamination goes as far as a true Bildungsroman, with an extremely clear underlining on the one hand of Angelina’s non-belonging to the immoral and arrogant world to which her existence is consigned, and on the other of her grasp of progressive awareness of his destiny until the final triumph against the abuses arbitrarily suffered… The listener’s ear is therefore constantly guided along the process of complete disclosure of the protagonist’s nature, expressed through a long series of contrasts with the comedy of Don Magnifico , the restless and light-hearted nervousness of Dandini, the incorrigible stupidity of the stepsisters and the ingenious interventions of maestro Alidoro – in a perfect mix of funny and serious elements that make this opera a masterpiece of Rossini’s comedy”

Paolo Rodda, Artistic Director of Verdiunderlines instead: “It is a great result for us to see Giorgio Caoduro return to the Verdi after a magnificent international career and we are happy that his return fits into this season, which has demonstrated and is still demonstrating all the creativity and quality of the workers artistic talents of our theater which once again aspires to the forefront of national and international attention to further enhance the reputation of Trieste as a city of art and culture”.

Superintendent Giuliano Polo he summarizes the continuation of the current season like this: “We are satisfied with the new rhythms of Verdi, whose summer season as part of Trieste Estate has already been launched thanks to the commitment of the Municipality and we are also happy that the novelty of some titles, perhaps less immediately recognizable compared to the more traditional repertoire, attract new audiences and above all be the basis for new collaborations in the city. With the production of Cinderella we will then be at the Teatro Giovanni da Udine in a double appointment, on May 24th with the general rehearsal open to schools and on the 25th with the actual performance, to underline once again Verdi’s service role throughout the region”

Act

A Friday 26 April 2024 at 8.00 pm

B Saturday 27 April 2024 at 7.00 pm

D Sunday 28 April 2024 at 4.00 pm

C Friday 3 May 2024 at 8.00 pm

S Saturday 4 May 2024 at 4.00 pm

And Sunday 5 May 2024 at 4.00 pm

www.teatroverdi-trieste.com [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Press release