Ennio Morricone’s sole opera “Partenope” will receive its world premiere at Teatro San Carlo.

The work will be performed on Dec. 12 and 14  and will be conducted by Riccardo Frizza.

The new Teatro San Carlo production will be entrusted to the vision of Vanessa Beecroft who will work alongside Daniela Ciancio and Danilo Rubeca.

The cast will include Jessica Pratt and Maria Agresta as Partneope, Francesco Demuro as Melanio and Désirée Giove, a former Student of the Teatro di San Carlo Academy for Opera Singers, takes on the role of Persephone. The Narrator is voiced by Mimmo Borrelli.

The work, which has been described as a “chamber opera” due to its restrained vocal cast, was composed in 1995 to a libretto by Sandro Cappelletto and Guido Barbieri. For various reasons, however, it was never performed.

In a statement Frizza noted, “The source of this production is ‘Napoli millenaria,’ the celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the city of Neapolis, which is reinterpreting with thousands of broad-ranging events the origin of the legend, the link between legend and history, and the spirit that has formed the identity of one of the most important cities in the world and one of the driving forces of western civilisation over a period spanning 2500 years.”

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