Manfred

Fondazione del Teatro Stabile di Torino and Teatro Regio Torino

Press Release – 19 April 2010

Change in cast: Valter Malosti is the new protagonist in Byron’s Manfred, with stage direction by Andrea De Rosa

Frédérique Loliée, the actress designated by director Andrea De Rosa and the artistic management of the Teatro Stabile and Teatro Regio as the protagonist (en travesti) of the up-coming joint production of Manfred by Byron/Schumann, has announced, with great professional regret but also personal joy, that her by-now confirmed maternity will prevent her from completing the artistic commitment she had initiated.

Though we share her regret, the stage director and management of the Teatro Stabile and Teatro Regio participate warmly in her joy, and by mutual consent have decided to entrust the role to the actor and director from Torino, Valter Malosti.

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Approaching the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy 
Teatro Carignano, 11 - 16 June 2010 – Italian premiere
Teatro Regio, 19 - 24 June 2010
MANFRED
Dramatic poem by George Gordon Byron (new Italian translation by Enzo Moscato)
music Robert Schumann
conductor Gianandrea Noseda
direction Andrea De Rosa
with Valter Malosti
and (in alphabetical order) Marco Cavicchioli, Francesca Cutolo, Milvia Marigliano, Daniela Piperno
sets Sergio Tramonti
costumes Fabio Sonnino
lights Pasquale Mari
sound Hubert Westkemper
Chorus Master Roberto Gabbiani
Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio
New Production Fondazione del Teatro Stabile di Torino and Teatro Regio Torino

During the months of May and June, Teatro Stabile and Teatro Regio will collaborate in the  production of an ambitious theatre project, the staging of  Byron’s dramatic poem Manfred, with the original incidental music by Robert Schumann. The Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio, conducted by maestro Gianandrea Noseda, will be the protagonists of the theatrical staging created by stage director Andrea De Rosa. The show will be interpreted by Valter Malosti and Marco Cavicchioli, Francesca Cutolo, Milvia Marigliano, Daniela Piperno. Manfred, included in both play-bills, will be performed at Teatro Carignano (where it will have its national premiere from 11 to 16 June), and at Teatro Regio (with performances from 19 to 24 June 2010).

Fond of Italy, where he spent long periods of time, George Gordon Byron stood out in the Romantic – Risorgimento world for his poetic spirit, which was capable of inspiring great feats and heroic gestures, those same ideals that stirred the still-to-be unified Italy.  Of Manfred, the pure romanticism, the cold solitude of the superman and the clash between man and the supernatural still appeal today, as they did to Robert Schumann, who wrote the music in 1848, after Genevieve and Faust. Even if Byron’s work was not conceived for the stage, he wrote it with the aim of emphasising the poetic text by relying on the form of the melodrama.

Maestro Gianandrea Noseda, speaking about the decision to stage Manfred, states: «Schumann was a magnificent composer of Lied, that extremely complex musical microcosm built on a poem and enclosed in the space of three minutes…here, precisely because there are pieces interpolated on spoken parts, they have the quality of lieder, the freshness of spontaneous intuition. When he uses his intuition to grasp the situation with a few gestures, Schumann is second to none».

Andrea de Rosa, responsible for the stage direction, writes in his notes: «“What would you want from us?”  Manfred is asked in the first act by the very spirits he has summoned. "Forgetfulness" is the answer; forgetfulness is the key word that drew me into this strange and difficult text and world, where rules count which are almost impossible to imagine and where things distant and lost are spoken about. Like spirits, irreparable pain, death. If one considers the matter carefully, with the death of God – which, as certain philosophers explain well, has nothing to do with personal atheism, but with the fact that he has in effect disappeared from our lives, our society, no longer determining timing and ways except in an empty and residual form – many words have died: one of these is spirit, the other is the absolute. The nineteenth century racked its brains on both of them, sometimes in opposite directions, with every discipline, from poetry to painting, passing through music, philosophy, theatre and politics. Manfred lives in this far-off land where it is still possible to evoke death and spirits, asking them what counts and discovering that the answer is not “another day” but silence, forgetfulness, death.

Death and silence, freedom and the absolute that are denied to Manfred because of a curse. It’s hard to imagine, but precisely for this reason, the invitation to cross the threshold of this disquieting universe is even more irresistible.».

HOURS:
Performances at Teatro Carignano: Friday 11 and Saturday 12 June 2010, 8.45 pm; Sunday 13 June, 3.30 pm. Monday 14 June, closed. Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 June, 8.45 pm.
Performances at Teatro Regio: Saturday 19 June, 3 pm and 8 pm; Sunday 20 June, 3 pm. Monday 21 June, closed. Tuesday 22 June, 8 pm; Wednesday 23 June, 8 pm.

BOX OFFICE INFO:
Box Office of the Teatro Stabile - Teatro Regio, piazza Castello 215, telephone 011 8815241/242 (from Tuesday to Friday 10,30/18,00. Saturday 10,30/16,00). On days of performances tickets can be purchased at the theatre one hour before the performance begins.
For more information: www.teatrostabiletorino.it – www.teatroregio.torino.it.

PRESS INFO:
Fondazione del Teatro Stabile di Torino, Press and Communication Office:
Carla Galliano (Head), Simona Carrera, Davide Tosolini
Via Rossini, 12 - Torino (Italy). Telephone + 39 011 5169414 - 5169435 - 5169498
E-mail: galliano@teatrostabiletorino.it - carrera@teatrostabiletorino.it - tosolini@teatrostabiletorino.it
Teatro Regio, Press and Communication Office
Paola Giunti (Head), Sara Zago
Piazza Castello 215 – Torino (Italy). Telephone +39 011 8815233 – 8815239
E-mail: ufficiostampa@teatroregio.torino.it