[PDF] Otello press comunication - Teatro La Fenice

FONDAZIONE TEATRO LA FENICE
Otello
venerdì 16 novembre 2012, ore 19.00
martedì 20 novembre 2012, ore 19.00
giovedì 22 novembre 2012, ore 17.00
sabato 24 novembre 2012, ore 15.30
martedì 27 novembre 2012, ore 19.00
giovedì 29 novembre 2012, ore 19.00
venerdì 30 novembre 2012, ore 19.00
prova generale 13 novembre 2012 ore 15.30
LA FENICE
http://www.teatrolafenice.it
VERDI AND OR WAGNER
AUTORIZZAZIONE DEL TRIBUNALE DI VENEZIA, 10 APRILE 1997, ISCR. N. 1257 REGISTRO STAMPA
redazione tel ++39 041 786521 fax 786505
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Tristan und Isolde
domenica 18 novembre 2012, ore 15.30
Direttore Myung Whun Chung
Regia Paul Curran
18/23/ 25/ 28 novembre - 01 dicembre 2012
prova generale 14 novembre 2012 ore 17.00
PRESS RELEASE Venice, September 2012
Otello by Giuseppe Verdi
On Friday 16th November, 2012 Teatro La Fenice will open its 2012-2013 opera season at 19.00 with a new production
of Otello, an operatic drama in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to a libretto by Arrigo Boito based on the same-named
tragedy by Shakespeare. Verdi’s last tragic masterpiece, it debuted at Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 5th February, 1887.
Followed on 18th November by the première of Tristan und Isolde, the evening is the first part of the double
inauguration marking the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) and Richard Wagner
(1813-1883): this is a challenging dual production in which the two operas will be performed on alternating dates
throughout the second half of November, with different casts and productions, but both conducted by the Korean
maestro Myung-Whun Chung.
Set in Venetian Cyprus at the end of the fifteenth century, Otello is the Venetian-themed homage that Teatro La Fenice is
paying to two of the greatest composers of nineteenth century opera, in addition to Tristan und Isolde, which was
partially inspired by the nocturnal atmosphere in the city, where Wagner lived whilst composing the second act.
Director of this production of Otello is Francesco Micheli, set design by Edoardo Sanchi, and costumes by Silvia
Aymonino; it will go on tournée in April to Japan for the opening of the new Osaka Festival Hall and then be performed
in the Courtyard of the Doge’s Palace during the Festival ‘Lo spirit della musica di Venezia’ [The Spirit of Music in
Venice].
The cast includes Gregory Kunde alternating with Walter Fraccaro as Otello, Leah Crocetto alternating with Carmela
Remigio as Desdemona, Lucio Gallo alternating with Dimitri Platanias as Jago; Cassio will be sung by Francesco
Marsiglia, Roderigo by Antonello Ceron, Montano by Matteo Ferrara, and Emilia by Elisabetta Martorana. The Teatro
La Fenice Orchestra and Choir (choir master Claudio Marino Moretti) will be supported by the trebles of the Piccoli
Cantori Veneziani, conducted by Diana D’Alessio.
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The première on Friday 16 th November, 2012 will be followed by a further six performances, Tuesday 20 th at 19.00,
Thursday 22 nd at 17.00, Saturday 24 th at 15.30, Tuesday 27 th , Thursday 29 th , and Friday 30 th at 19.00.
Tickets for the performances are on sale at prices ranging from 15 to 220 euros (between 30 and 500 euros for the
première on 16 th November) at the Hellovenezia ticket offices (Teatro La Fenice, Piazzale Roma, Tronchetto, Lido,
Mestre, Dolo, Sottomarina), through the telephone ticket office (041 2424), on-line ticket office (www.teatrolafenice.it)
and via fax (041 2722673).
Verdi’s last two operas, Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893), are exceptional cases: they are the absolute masterpieces of
their genre and for various reasons are not part of the contemporary framework. In fact, not only are these works the
result of the cultural and stylistic stimuli that led Verdi to expand the horizon of Italian opera to European levels in the
‘70s – ‘80s but they are also the final achievement of the composer’s creative development.
After 1871, the year of Aida, he seemed to have almost stopped composing: although he was always working on
something – in addition to composing the Requiem he also revised Simon Boccanegra in 1881 and the Italian version of
Don Carlos in 1884 – he himself had said he wanted to end his own career. Luckily, however, Aida was not his least
operatic masterpiece as his reluctance was overcome by a shrewd move of ‘encirclement’ by Giulio Ricordi. In this, the
publisher involved Arrigo Boito, the unchecked anti-academic who was not only a controversial figure owing to his
reactions to Italian literary tradition and his librettos for Verdi: with Otello and Falstaff, as well as his own Mefistofele
Boito had opened up new expressive worlds to the archaic panorama of Italian libretto writing, by offering more up-todate
contents and trying his hand at bold experimental and asymmetrical models.
In all likelihood, Boito’s ‘return to Canossa’ would not have had the desired effect if he had not struck a chord that Verdi
considered fundamental: William Shakespeare. The drama model of this genius of Elizabethan theatre had incessantly
accompanied Verdi’s career, both directly in works that were linked to plays by the playwright (Macbeth, and later Otello
and Falstaff) and in the lengthy mediation of King Lear, exemplum maximum of tragic characterisation and tightly-knit
construction of dramatic rhythm.
After almost fifteen years of Shakespearian discussions, Otello was finished at the end of 1886 and met with resounding
success at the Milan Scala on 5 th February, 1887. It was also thanks to Boito’s provocative stylistic innovation that the
music Verdi composed for the famous tale of love and jealousy was equally original. Here he experimented with the
structural principal of the ‘open’ form, with an extremely ductile sonoral course in which motif fragments are interwoven
in a constant, iridescent melodic path that accompanies the action and psychology of the characters with blinding
intensity and adherence. Some believe this opera to be a sort of capitulation by Verdi to the Wagnerian model, without,
however, understanding that it is the extreme result of a highly personal dramatic conception, the roots of which are to be
seen in Verdi’s earliest works.
AUTORIZZAZIONE DEL TRIBUNALE DI VENEZIA, 10 APRILE 1997, ISCR. N. 1257 REGISTRO STAMPA
redazione tel ++39 041 786521 fax 786505
http://www.teatrolafenice.it
http://www.facebook.com/LaFeniceufficiale https://twitter.com/#!/TeatroLaFenice