PRESS RELEASEJune 2017
2017-2018 Opera and Ballet Season
The2017-2018 Opera and Ballet Season of Fondazione Teatro La Feniceincludes eight new opera productions including two for the younger generation, seven revivals and three guest productions while the ballet programme includes great classics and contemporary dance recitals, all of which comes to a total of twenty titles and one hundred and forty-four performances. The opening on 24 November of Giuseppe Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera with the conductor Myung-Whun Chung will be followed by the first modern-day première of Gaspare Spontini’s Metamorfosi di Pasquale; The Merry Widowby Franz Lehár with a new production with direction by Damiano Michieletto; Orlando Furiosoby Antonio Vivaldiin co-production with the Festival della Valle d’Itria;the Italian première of Giorgio Battistelli’sRichard III; attention will be focussed on Gioachino Rossini,marking the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his death with a new production ofSemiramideand the revival of the Fenice’s productions of Signor Bruschino and theBarber of Seville; two new productions are dedicated to schools and families, produced in collaboration with the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice: Zenobia, Regina de’ Palmireni byTomaso Albinoni andIl Regno della LunabyNiccolò Piccinni; finally, the ballet programme includes the Royal Ballet of Flanders with choreography bySidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Jeroen Verbruggen,the Italian première of theone man showby Michail Baryšnikov inspired by the poetry of the Nobel award winner Nobel Joseph Brodsky,and a gala of great classics.The Season was presented today in Venice by the superintendent Cristiano Chiarot and the artistic director Fortunato Ortombina.
The Season will open withUn Ballo in MascherabyGiuseppe Verdi,conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, in a new production with direction by Gianmaria Aliverta, who recently took the stage in Venice withMirandolinaby Bohuslav Martinů and the tragic diptych The Human Voice/La Voix humaine.In this new production by the Fenice – on 24, 26 and 29 November, 1 and 3 December – Riccardowill be played by the tenorFrancesco Meli, Amelia by the soprano Kristin Lewis, and Renato by Vladimir Stoyanov.
For the first time in the modern day, on 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 January 2018, Teatro Malibran will hostLeMetamorfosi di Pasquale byGaspare Spontini, in a new production with directionby Gianluca Capuano, in collaboration with the Venice Academy of Fine Arts, and produced by Fondazione Teatro La Fenice together with the Jesi Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini.Le Metamorfosi di Pasquale o sia Tutto è illusione nel mondo –a one-act farce put to music, with a libretto by Giuseppe Foppa – debuted in Venice at Teatro Giustiniani in San Moisè during the 1802Carnival and its production was only made possible thanks to the recent discovery of the handwritten score.
During the height of the Carnival season, after thirty years’ absence, Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow)by Franz Lehár will return to La Fenice on 2, 4, 8, 10 and 13 February 2018, with a new production that was co-produced by the Rome Opera, with musical direction by Stefano Montanari,direction byDamiano Michielettoand sets by Paolo Fantin. The cast includes the soprano Nadja Mchantaf in the role of Hanna Glawari and the baritone Christoph Pohl as Danilo Danilowitsch.
In March 2018 one of the great repertoire operas, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohèmewill return with the successful 2011 production with direction by Francesco Micheli,conducted byMyung-Whun Chungand with a double cast that includes Ivan Rayon Rivas and Azer Zada as Rodolfo, Selene Zanetti and Vittoria Yeoas Mimì, Julian Kim as Marcello and Irina Dubrovskaya as Musetta.
For the first time, on 13, 15, 17, 19 and 21 April 2018 Antonio Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso will be staged at Teatro Malibran, in a new production that was co-produced with the Martina Franca Festival della Valle d’Itria, where it will debut this coming July. Production is by the young producer Fabio Ceresa, who won the London Opera Awards as the best up and coming director of the year, while Diego Fasolis is in charge of the musical direction, with a cast that includes Sonia Prina (Orlando), Francesca Aspromonte (Angelica), Lucia Cirillo (Alcina), Carlo Vistoli (Ruggiero) and Riccardo Novaro (Astolfo). A musicalized drama with a libretto by Grazio Bracciolibased on Ludovico Ariosto’s masterpiece – written over half a century ago – Orlando debuted at Teatro di Sant’Arcangelo in Venice in the autumn of 1727.
Going from the Baroque to contemporary music, Teatro La Fenice’s programme continues with the first Italian première of Giorgio Battistello’s Richard III, a two-act musical drama based on William Shakespeare’s play, which was cut and adapted by the playwright Ian Burton; it will be staged in the production by the Antwerp Vlaamse Operawith direction by Robert Carsen on 29 June, 1, 3, 5 and 7 July 2018.
In 2018, La Fenice will launch the RossiniProjectto celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Gioachino Rossini’s death. Three of his operas will be staged, starting with the new production of Semiramide, a tragic melodrama in two acts to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi, composed by Rossini for none other than La Fenice, where it debuted on 3 February 1823, before leaving Italy once and for all and going to Paris. It will be performed on 19, 21, 23, 25 and 27 October 2018 with a new production with musical direction by Riccardo Frizza, direction by Cecilia Ligorio and with Jessica Pratt as Semiramide, Teresa Iervolino (Arsace), Alex Esposito (Assur) and Edgardo Rocha (Idreno). In addition to this novelty are the revivals of the Barber of Seville (Teatro La Fenice, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18 February, 19, 24, 26 August, 2, 4, 15, 19, 23, 27 September, 4, 6, 20, 24, 26, 28, 30 October2018) with the successful production with direction by Bepi Morassi;and the early farceIl signor Bruschino (Teatro La Fenice, 27 and 29 April, 4 May 2018, conductor Alvise Casellati, direction di Bepi Morassi) produced by La Fenice with sets, costumes and lighting by the Stage design school of the Venice Fine Arts Academy.
Last but not least, there are two productions aimed at the younger generation of schools and families, created in collaboration with the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, and presented at Teatro Malibran. The very first opera by the Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni, Zenobia, Regina de’ Palmireni, which had its première at Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice; the production is by Francesco Bellotto while the musical direction is by Francesco Erle. Niccolò Piccinni’s Il Regno della Luna, a musical farce that debuted in Milan in 1770, will be conducted by Maurizio Dini Ciacci.
As regards ballet, contemporary dance will be the protagonist at Teatro La Fenice from 13 to 17 December 2017 with the Royal Ballet of Flanders, and a contemporary programme by three choreographers: Ma Mère l’Oyeby Jeroen Verbruggento music by Maurice Ravel, and two pieces by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui –artistic director of the Belgian company since 2015 –: thepas de deuxFaunto music by Debussy and Nitin Sawhney, andExhibitionto the music ofPictures at an Exhibitionby Modest Musorgskij in the version orchestrated by Ravel.
Michail Baryšnikov will be the protagonist of a one man showinspired by the poetry byJoseph Brodsky, which will have its Italian première at La Fenice where it will be performed from 13 to 15 July 2018. Conceived and directed by Alvis Hermanis, Brodsky/Baryšnikovis an emotional journey through the works of the poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Les Étoiles,on the other hand, is the title of the classic dance gala in which the greatest names in ballet will perform at La Fenice on 21 and 22 July 2018. The programme includes a variety of repertoire pieces, such as Victory Gsovskly’s Grand Pas Classique to music by Daniel Aube, the virtuoso pas de deux of Diana and Atteone with choreography by Agrippina Vaganova to music by Riccardo Drigo, George Balanchine’s famous Čajkovskij Pas de Deux and Spartacus, by the legendary Yuri Grigorovich to music by Aram Khachaturian.
In addition to the aforementioned productions by Rossini and La Bohème, the other productions that will be revived at La Fenice in the 2017-2018 season are programmed for December 2017, January, May, June, August, September and October 2018, with new performance cycles of Giuseppe Verdi’s Traviata, directed by Robert Carsen and with prestigious debuts including that of the soprano Nadine Sierra as Violetta; in April, August and September Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with direction by Àlex Rigola and sets and costumes by the Japanese artist Mariko Mori; in April, May and June 2018 Gaetano Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore with direction by Bepi Morassi; lastly, Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma with Kara Walker’s version, with Mariella Devia (Norma), Stefan Pop (Pollione) and Carmela Remigio (Adalgisa).
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