Opera and Ballet 2018-2019

«Exquisite and vivid, with scenes of great power»: it is Verdi’s words that best describe one of the most noir operas of all time, immortalized by such arias as Di quella pira and Stride la vampa. The force of his music and the devastating passion cannot leave you indifferent.

Tenderness and comedy, emotion and charm have seldom known such happy coexistence as in this comic masterpiece by Donizetti. A «playful melodrama» in which a man pursues a woman’s love in every way, encountering the rivalry of the typical tough guy before being helped by a “good charlatan”…

The opera of all operas, able, in its universality, to touch people's heart all over the world. Based on the bestseller La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, La Traviata is unbridled passion, a clash between rigid morality and freedom.

The icon of Italian ballet all over the world, Roberto Bolle, thanks to his talent, has created and introduced over time innovations into his brilliant galas, bringing together many marvelous étoiles in fabulous dance episodes: interpreters able to put in full relief the beauty of dance.

«The most moving and evocative opera I’ve ever conceived», wrote Puccini. A story of sexual tourism, because that’s what it’s about, put to music at the dawning of the twentieth century. And since then it has been captivating audiences all over the world. Watch out! You might cry…

Defying the censorship of the time like never before, Verdi stages a drama full of humanity, bringing to life a unique figure in the world of opera. A tragedy that brutally underscores the love of a father for his daughter which is crushed by the cynicism of society.

The first performance in modern times of an opera and a composer that warrant rediscovery. Admired by Chopin and Berlioz, Agnese by Paer conquered theatres all over Europe and the world in only a few years, in the same period that Rossini’s fame was growing. Great emotion and entertainment together with splendid music.

A great Italian classic becomes an opera thanks to a composer and a librettist who are both Italian. And it met with success in European theatres, with Germany in the lead. All the magic of Collodi’s text is poured into the music of Valtinoni, bringing to life a show that has as protagonist a real puppet.

The phenomenon of sleepwalking and insanity in general is, in opera, a way to exalt vocal virtuosity. Bellini excels in radiating with his lyric style the tender and hard-won love between the protagonists, whom he entrusts with enchanting music.

The eternal love story conceived by the genius of Shakespeare becomes a ballet thanks to Prokofiev’s splendid score. One of the greatest choreographers of the twentieth century, MacMillan, revived it for two ballet stars, Fonteyn and Nureyev, highlighting all of the passion of the two lovers.

Stendhal defined it as «complete, organized madness», exalting the perfection of the opera buffa that made Rossini famous at around the age of twenty. Almost certainly taken from a true story, L’italiana in Algeri is a concentration of vitality, a joyous musical mechanism.

Love and jealousy raised to the highest power by the music of Pietro Mascagni, who in 1890 began his career unexpectedly by winning the Sonzogno composers’ competition, being acclaimed as the “new Italian maestro”, after Verdi, thanks to this opera, based on a story by Verga.

Defying the censorship of the time like never before, Verdi stages a drama full of humanity, bringing to life a unique figure in the world of opera. A tragedy that brutally underscores the love of a father for his daughter which is crushed by the cynicism of society.

Everyone knows Summertime, but few know that it is one of the wonderful songs of this “folk opera” with which Gershwin ended prematurely his career. Aspects of jazz, spirituals, musicals and theatre are the ingredients of the greatest American opera of the twentieth century, an authentic cross-section of Afro-American life.