Hitting the high notes in 2012

Hitting the high notes in 2012

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino's 2012 program reflects an exploratory spirit that is at the same time steeped in national pride. The upcoming season promises to satisfy stalwart fans of Italian repertoire as well as those eager for surprises.   A good part of the program celebrates the Italian masters. The

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Thu 15 Dec 2011 1:00 AM

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino’s 2012 program reflects an exploratory spirit
that is at the same time steeped in national pride. The upcoming season
promises to satisfy stalwart fans of Italian repertoire as well as those eager
for surprises.

 

A good part of the program celebrates the Italian masters. The year
opens with Il Viaggio a Reims, an extremely demanding dramma giocoso by Gioachino Rossini that requires 14 vocal soloists. (Dramma giocoso is
a type of opera common in the mid-eighteenth century, characterized by a grand
scene in light humor at the end of each act.) Rossini wrote Il Viaggio a
Reims for the coronation of King Charles X at Rheims in 1825, and since
then, although it is considered one of Rossini’s finest works, it has been
performed infrequently; not only is the work notoriously difficult but the
original manuscript was disassembled and lost after the original performance
until 1970, when musicologists unearthed the pieces. In January’s performance
at Teatro Comunale, a rising young conductor, Daniele Rustoni, will preside
over the vocal acrobatics. The set by Marco Gandini, evoking slightly
fantastical realism, should suggest, with more than a touch of irony, a
triumphant Europe.

 

In February and March, Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca and then Gaetano
Donizetti’s Anna Bolena (a production of the Arena di Verona and the
Teatro Verdi di Trieste) come to the stage. In May, the Italian rhythm will
break for Der Rosenkavalier, the first of three original productions the
Maggio will present in celebration of its 75th anniversary. In spite of (or
perhaps because of) it being a middle-European classic, Johann Strauss’ Der
Rosenkavalier has not been performed in Florence since 1989. The audience
should savor this opportunity to hear the magical combination of Strauss’  vital musical energy and librettist Hugo van
Hofmmansthal’s delicate wordplay directed by the a formidable team: conductor
Zubin Mehta and German producer Eike Gramss.

The next piece in the anniversary series jumps ahead a century,
showcasing the work of a contemporary composer, Silvia Colasanti, trained at
the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome: a musical interpretation of Kafka’s novel
The Metamorphosis. The final production of the anniversary series
backtracks to the early twentieth century for two works by Béla Bartók: The
Miraculous Mandarin and Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Seiji Ozawa, a
great proponent of twentieth-century repertoire who has appeared before at the
Teatro Comunale, will conduct. The Miraculous Mandarin is a dark pantomime
ballet, telling the story of a prostitute and the mandarin who visits her in a
brothel only to discover that he was lured there so that two other men, waiting
in the shadows, could steal his riches. Even after he is stabbed, he still
advances towards the young woman, who cringes until he is dying. Only then does
she finally embrace him. Because of the erotic tension, which the music
highlights, the ballet was banned after its first performance 1926; later only
the orchestral suite was usually performed. In May 2012, dancers will be
included, and audiences will be able to appreciate the full power of Bartók’s
special, Hungarian-folk-infused modernism. (The ballet is being choreographed
by Jo Kanamori, in collaboration with the Saito Kinen Festival.)

 

After this deep exploration into the darkest parts of the psyche, Maggio
returns to the airiness of Italian opera, with the final runs of the season
being Giuseppe Verdi’s Traviata and Puccini’s Turandot. It is
perhaps appropriate to have a second Puccini work, Gianni Schicchi, in
the program since he was, of course, Tuscan and his music is deeply entwined
with this region. In Turandot, audiences will have the privilege of hearing the
acclaimed American soprano Jennifer Wilson in the role of the cruel princess.
Her big, rich voice promises to complement the role well.

 

In addition to the new opera house, varied treasures await us in the
2012 Maggio opera season, and we can rest assured that the performances will
help us stay rooted in Florence while provoking and scandalizing us just a
healthy little bit.

 

For season details and tickets, see www.maggiofiorentino.com.

 

 

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