(Photo: Toni Suter) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote “La clemenza di Tito” in 1791, the year of his death, to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, as King of Bohemia. The libretto, adapted from Metastasio, celebrates the Roman Emperor Tito as a magnanimous and forgiving ruler; this was particularly apt for the enlightened monarch Leopold, who governed through {…}
(Credit: Javier del Real) There are operas that survive by turning into monuments–and others by remaining dangerously alive. “Carmen” belongs to the second category. It refuses preservation. It resists comfort. And every so often, a production appears that reminds one why this work still unsettles rather than reassures. Production Details Damiano Michieletto’s “Carmen” at Teatro Real is one of those {…}
(Photo: Fabrizio Sansoni) Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera opened its season with “Lohengrin,” last heard at the Teatro Costanzi a half century ago, in 1975. Once Wagner’s most popular opera in this country, it fell out of favor with the new dogma of presenting operas in their original language. Between 1933 and 1966, it was performed on average every other season. Then {…}
At the beginning of the 19th century, a small Venetian theatre called San Moisè was dedicated to the genre of the “farsa”—short, semi-serious one-act operas performed by a small company of six or seven singers, without a chorus, and accompanied by a modest orchestra. The barely twenty-year-old Gioachino Rossini found this environment ideal for honing his compositional skills and establishing {…}
(Credit: TIFF) Damiano Michieletto’s debut film “Primavera” is set to make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Italy-France co-production tells the story of a talented violinist, Cecilia, confined in an orphanage, who meets Vivaldi and becomes his student. Under his mentorship and through his music, she gains courage to break free from the life she was {…}
(Photo: Ansa Matteo Corner) This Monday, the long-awaited press conference was held to unveil the Teatro alla Scala’s 2025–26 season. The lineup promises to shine with big names, new productions, and ambitious projects. That’s why we’re bringing you a Top five list of the unmissable highlights of the new season! Number 1: A Bold Opening As tradition dictates, the season {…}
(Ph. Brescia – Amisano © Teatro alla Scala) In a suitcase–acquired expressly to transport it due to its weight and size–travels, rehearsal after rehearsal and performance after performance, the score of “Il nome della rosa,” weighing an impressive 15 kilograms. Yet the heft of this voluminous tome is not merely physical but also semiotic: it is the fruit of the {…}
(Credit: Mark Brenner) For the second time in only a few months, I find myself reviewing a production I have seen before where I was initially very critical of what I perceived to be a weak production, creatively, but inexplicably having a change of heart the second time around. So as not to face accusations of hypocrisy or worse, senility; {…}
(Photo ©2024 Camilla Greenwell) In a recent interview with director Damiano Michieletto at the Venice production of “The Tales of Hoffmann,” he said: “At its heart it is a journey into fantasy. It is opera fantastique, after all!” One definition of the French word fantastique is: a term for a literary and cinematic genre and mode that is characterized by {…}
(Photo credit: (***Trigger warning based on topics of suicide and violence towards women) Madrid’s Teatro Real closes its season with an astonishing number of 19 performances with four different casts of Puccini’s tragic tale: “Madama Butterfly.” Nicola Luisotti was in charge of the Orchestra of Teatro Real for most of the performances, and the excellent Italian stage director Damiano Michieletto {…}
(Photo credit: Emilie Brouchon / Opéra national de Paris) I’ve been told that one reads “Don Quichotte” three times in life: in one’s twenties to laugh, in one’s forties to think, and in one’s sixties to cry. This saddening saying reflects the multivocal quality of the Chevalier of La Mancha’s myth: painfully delusional and carnally human, his hallucinatory deeds are {…}