(Photo: Brescia e Amisano) It was December 7, 2019, when the curtain of Teatro alla Scala rose before the select audience that annually attends the Sant’Ambroeus performance, better known among opera lovers as “La prima della Scala,” the event that inaugurates the new season of the prestigious Italian theater. To open the 2019-20 season—unaware that it would soon be brutally {…}
What happens when a rather questionable story where good intentions end up futile in the face of capricious behavior is re-conceptualized? “The Opera!” by directors Paolo Gep Cucco and Davide Livermore. It is a strange sort of film where the two central characters are played by opera singers (Orpheus, Valentino Buzza and Eurydice, Mariam Battistelli) who seem woefully under-prepared to {…}
The Teatro alla Scala has set to perform Davide Livermore’s new film “The Opera!” The work by Livermore and Gep Cucco is inspired by the myth of Orpheus and will be shown on Jan. 19, 2025. The film stars Valentino Buzza, Mariam Battistelli, Erwin Schrott, Fanny Ardant, Vincent Cassel, Caterina Murino, Rossy de Palma and Angela Finocchiaro. It also included {…}
Director Davide Livermore withdrew from the production of “Again 2024 Turandot” 24 hours before it opened in Seoul. Per The Korea Herald, his reasons for pulling out included creative and contractual disputes with the creative team. Per the report, Livermore did not recognize the direction of the production as his own. He cited that the team continually made changes to {…}
Photo: Marco Borrelli On Sunday January 28th, 2024, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo gave the penultimate performance of a new production of Handel’s “Giulio Cesare in Egitto,” the third in a series of Handel productions featuring Cecilia Bartoli, following “Ariodante” in 2019 and “Alcina” in 2023, both staged by Christof Loy. This time, the staging was entrusted to Davide Livermore, scenographer {…}
(Photo: Amati Bacciardi) “Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra,” premiering in 1815, was Rossini’s first of eight operas for Naples’ Teatro di San Carlo. Having already established himself in Venice and Milan, he was set on conquering the Neapolitan public. This was no easy task, given the opposition he faced from the local cognoscenti. Such was his determination, however, he gave considerable attention {…}
