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Canto per la Valnerina - Opera Insieme
When I was approached to take care of the direction and stage design for the operation Singing for the Valnerina and Opera Participated: Cinderella for All, I enthusiastically accepted.
I liked from two concepts right away: "Opera participated" and "for everyone." Inopera as a collective and open ritual to anyone I have always believed. And working with people from an area that is still deeply wounded I consider a privilege.
I was given very specific obligations: the performance would be performed in non-theatrical venues; the 'Opera would be an elaboration of the original, with many cuts, for piano and wind ensemble; the presence of a mixed chorus of male and female voices (Rossini requires only male voices); the elimination of the character of Alidoro (almost a deus ex-machina in the 'Opera); the participation of a children's chorus, which in Rossini is not really there.
Important and not easy constraints.
And of course from these I set out to decide how to tell this Cinderella story of ours.
The central issue has been how to justify the presence of children.
Having eliminated without a doubt the possibility of making them Disney-style mice, or setting the action--I don't know--in a school where Cinderella is a janitor, I thought I would start from the end, to fairy tale concluded with Cinderella and the Prince married. From the classic "And they lived happily ever after...."
The children, then, are the children of Cinderella and Don Ramiro.
from Here everything has unraveled. We are all at a family celebration, a Wedding Anniversary (from how married are they? It doesn't matter. Even the fairy tale sequel has no time), the chorus are the friends, the stepsisters the aunts, Don Magnifico the grandfather, Dandini the family friend who is in fact an uncle by marriage.
And the children want the parents to tell, once again, how they met. And from here begins the 'Opera telling the story of that meeting, that falling in love. The love at first sight between Cinderella and Don Ramiro is now a conscious and lasting love. Everyone present knows the story and relives it, simultaneously actors and spectators. There are no wings to hide between when not on stage. The clothes are those of today, with some "historical" elements for the protagonists that take them to the past time of "Once upon a time..."
And the children intervene when something doesn't feel right, taking on the role of Alidoro, and huddle around to mom and dad.
They are the "serto," the crown, that surrounds Cinderella and Ramiro.
Sincere thanks to M° Mariachiara Grilli, to all performers, adult and children's choirs, musicians, costume designer Clelia De Angelis, to Irene Lepore, the whole Teatro Lirico Sperimentale, for generously joining to this unusual way of representing La Cenerentola.
The ambition and hope would be to entertain Rossini as well.
May his legendary irony help us....
Andrea Stanisci
This version of mine of Rossini'sopera is undeniably linked, yes, to production requirements, but also to the imprint of the entire project Canto per la Valnerina - Opera partecipata. The latter's highly social character means that the term reduction - commonly used for musical adaptations employing smaller ensembles than the original composition - risks being inappropriate in this case. The need to cut a significant portion ofOpera led me to to retain only that which has structural dramaturgical value, keeping what is musically distinctive about each character. Missing here is Alidoro, Maestro and court counselor in Rossini's original, replaced in a "functional" sense by the children's chorus; all the other characters remain: Cinderella and her stepsisters Clorinda and Thisbe, Don Magnifico-their father and the protagonist's stepfather-, Prince Ramiro and his footman Dandini. Glueing together the different musical moments are often the voices themselves, which make up for the lack of the greater and more detailed original structural articulation by "passing" one and the same sound which, from closing note of a phrase for one character, becomes an entrance note for those who follow.
In the economy of the new structure such "transitions" become fundamental, not only between voices, but also between voices and instruments. In place of the orchestra: the band to which the Overture is entrusted, the piano/cembalo and the wind quintet. The interventions chosen for the latter correspond to parts in which it is Rossini himself, in his orchestration, to give greater prominence to the wind section. Besides being supportive of the chorus and ensembles, the quintet - in contrast to the more lyrical moments in which the piano is only to conversing with the soloists and accompanying them - emphasizes the two different meanings of the idea of nobility that Rossini offers us in his score: from on the one hand the real one and the noble feelings of Ramiro and, on the other, that of the servile and affected ways of Don Magnifico, which we might call "hoped-for nobility." The chorus, here mixed, in Rossini's all-male, intervenes at significant moments in the story, including the arrival of the Prince and the unveiling of Cinderella. An adaptation, then, in which music becomes the "territory" of convergence of different forces, made with a view to ensuring that all the people involved can really feel part of a performance and at the same time feel united in creating beauty, and in considering it as a tool for the rebirth of their territory. I would like to thank the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale for inviting me to to take part in the project, the director Andrea Stanisci for offering us a modern and up-to-date key, and all the participating choristers and instrumentalists. Happy listening!
Mariachiara Grilli
Accompanying a group of children to discover theater, and in particularopera theater, is at the same time a challenge and a privilege. What from the teachers' point of view makes this experience even more exciting is that challenge and privilege are actually two sides of the same coin, indeed, we could say that both aspects are even merged in the same face, that is, the one that sees so many music teachers represented sowing the first seed of beauty and curiosity in the hearts and minds of hundreds of children and young people. In the age when the possibilities offered by the net of capturing attention in a few minutes with a couple of clicks and gathering thousands of often sterile "likes" for more or less artistic forms, immediate in production, diffusion and fruition, it becomes more and more an educational challenge to make people understand and to times justify the complicated, laborious and long process (...very long when compared to the times of the net) by which a'opera theater comes to life. It is also in the interaction between different roles, between different professional figures that theopera is formed; every single minute of the show hides within it the individual talents of dozens of people, to sometimes hundreds, adults and children, and together their ability to work as a team.
For the same reasons, working with children in such an ambitious project is a great privilege: participation in the Piccolo Coro della Valnerina is absolutely optional for the children, does not involve auditions, and is not linked in any way to school or parish activities. Despite this, as is normal for those who are approaching to this world for the first time, few had from an immediate sense of the large amount of work they would have to endure for the preparation of Cinderella. To arrive to counting as many as twenty-four children from the two groups in Cascia and Vallo di Nera (rehearsal sites for the Piccolo Coro) is already an important achievement. The privilege for us teachers consists in the possibility of accompanying them on their debut, in having allowed us to share our passion with them, in having succeeded to in communicating with them on their own plane that is in no way inferior to to that of an adult but is simply "theirs," in having given us the opportunity to have them express themselves in contexts in which they might never have thought they could express themselves.
The Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto, with its constant commitment to musical education at every level, never forgets that the future of theater and in particular ofOpera and in the ability of institutions to involve young people and to include them in the first person within the creative process thus making them future listeners/spectators aware, motivated and proud of the Italian operatic musical tradition and musical art in general; a purpose this also aimed at the discovery and awareness of their own musical talent, as witnessed by the enthusiasm of these children. The hope is that the small seed sown in these hard months of rehearsals and in the now upcoming performances may blossom and be nurtured through future musical experiences involving and raising awareness in the various communities to which they belong.
Mauro Presazzi, Sara Cresta, Lucia Sorci
from Gioachino Rossini'sCinderella
to a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti
reduction from the autograph for piano, harpsichord, woodwinds and choirs to edited by Mariachiara Grilli
musical direction, piano and harpsichord Mariachiara Grilli
direction and stage design Andrea Stanisci
costumes Clelia De Angelis
solo singers of the Spoleto Experimental Opera Theater "to. Belli"
_Angelina _DanielaNineva, Rachele Raggiotti
Thisbe** Noemi Umani, Susanna Wolff**
Clorinda** Zdislava Bočková, Emanuela Sgarlata**
Don Magnifico** Ferruccio Finetti**
Dandini** Paolo Ciavarelli**
_Don Ramiro _AlessandroFiocchetti
Wind Ensemble of the Experimental Lyric Theater "Singing for the Valnerina"
**Elga Good **flauto
**Giacomo Silvestri **oboe
Sebastian Hayn clarinet
Gabriele Ricci horn
**Agostino Babbi **bassoon
Little Choir of the Valnerina and
Little Choir of Spoleto
directed from Mauro Presazzi
and prepared from Mauro Presazzi, Sara Cresta, Lucia Sorci
United choirs of
Santa Rita from Cascia
prepared from **Rita Narducci **and
St. Benedict City of Norcia
prepared from Luca Garbini
coordination of the Choirs** Ivano Granci**
Music Bands of Norcia, Bevagna and Cascia
directed from Filippo Salemmi
contributing masters Andrea Barbato, Azzurra Romano
stage manager** Irene Lepore**
assistant stage movements Graziano Petrini
organizational coordination** Gloria Bagatti, Marta D'Atri, Anna Flavia Santarelli**
logistical collaboration** Angelo Aramini, Angelo Bucchi, Violanda Lleshaj, Fr. Bernardino Pinciaroli**
production Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto "to. Belli" - Lyric Theater of Umbria
with the support of the **Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities**and the Region of Umbria
and the collaboration of the **Municipalities of Cascia, Norcia and Vallo di Nera, the Augustinian Community of SantaRita **and theBeehive of Santa Rita from Cascia
we thank for the collaboration the Luzzati Museum in Porta Siberia - Genoa for the use of the poster image and Publi2M Advertising of Moroni Marcello
The Teatro Lirico Sperimentale in Spoleto was founded in 1947 from Adriano Belli, a lawyer and musicologist, with the aim of initiating into the profession of opera those young people with special artistic qualities who, having completed their singing studies, had not yet made their debut. By taking in the winners of the "Sperimentale" singing competition to Spoleto and initiating them into a two-year course, they are given those elements that the school does not offer: not only preparation for the operas but also preparation for the act, under the guidance of the directors and conductors who stage the operas themselves in the presenting Opera Season. They have won the "Sperimentale" Competition, studied to Spoleto and debuted in the Institution's Opera Season many big names of international opera including Cesare Valletti, Franco Corelli, Antonietta Stella, Anita Cerquetti, Giangiacomo Guelfi, Ettore Bastianini, Anna Moffo, Gabriella Tucci, Marcella Pobbe, Rolando Panerai, Margherita Rinaldi, Franco Bonisolli, Giorgio Merighi, Leo Nucci, Ruggero Raimondi, Renato Bruson, Mietta Sighele, Veriano Luchetti, Salvatore Fisichella, Luciana D'Intino, Mariella Devia, Lucia Aliberti. Later Marcello Giordani, Natale De Carolis, Giusy Devinu, Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz, Giuseppe Morino, Monica Bacelli, Roberto Frontali, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Roberto De Candia, Sonia Ganassi, Norma Fantini, Nicola Ulivieri, Daniela Barcellona, Monica Colonna, Marina Comparato, Maria Agresta, Veronica Simeoni. Musicians such as Lina Cuscinà, Vincenzo Bellezza, Franco Capuana, Ottavio Ziino, Nino Rota, Giuseppe Bertelli, Alberto Paoletti, Luigi Ricci, Rolando Nicolosi, Carlo Ventura, Fernando Cavaniglia and for acting and stage movement Riccardo Picozzi, Carlo Piccinato, Tatiana Pavlova, Attilia Radice have collaborated for teaching in the past. In recent years for music education Anita Cerquetti, Enza Ferrari, Magda Olivero, Mietta Sighele, Gianpiero Taverna, Spiros Argiris, Massimo De Bernart, Giovanna Canetti, Bruno Aprea, Ivo Lipanovic, Vito Paternoster, Antonello Allemandi, Alfonso Scarano, Renato Bruson, Raina Kabaivanska, Marcello Panni, Bernadette Manca di Nissa, Carlo Palleschi. As part of teaching activities, Carlo Bergonzi, Otto Edelman, Waldemar Kmentt, Renato Bruson, Natale De Carolis, Giovanna Canetti have collaborated for specific courses. For stage movement and acting Italo Nunziata, Paolo Baiocco, Alvaro Piccardi, Lucio Gabriele Dolcini, Stefano Vizioli, Stefano Monti, Daniela Malusardi, Henning Brockhaus.
Prestigious directors, including Luca Ronconi (1994: Ligeia - Anacleto Morones), Ugo Gregoretti (1983 and 1995: L'Elisir d'amore - 1984: Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Gigi Proietti (1985: _Don Pasquale _- 1986: Le Nozze di Figaro), Giorgio Pressburger (1990: Il Pipistrello - 1993: _Tragèdie de Carmen _- 1996: Perso 4 per perso, L'Inganno Felice), Alvaro Piccardi (1987: Il Telefono - Mahagonny - 1988: _Così fan tutte _- 1990: Morte dell'aria - Lighea - 1994: La Bella Verità - 1995: La Bohème), Giancarlo Cobelli (1984: Mavra - 1985: Orfeo ed Euridice - 1987: Il Mercato di Malmantile - 1989: Simon Boccanegra - 1990: La Bohème), Sandro Sequi (1995: Il Matrimonio Segreto), Piera Degli Esposti (1996: La Notte di un Nevrastenico - Suor Angelica - 1998 : Le Parole al Buio), Stefano Monti (1996: Falstaff - 1998: Werther), Franco Ripa di Meana (1998: Don Giovanni - 1999: Le Nozze di Figaro), Henning Brockhaus (1999: Tosca - 2000: Midea2), Denis Krief (2001: Carmen), Lucio Gabriele Dolcini (2004: Le nozze di Figaro - 2005: Cleopatra - 2006: Didone Abbandonata - 2007: Il Trovatore), Giorgio Pressburger (2001: Il segreto di Susanna and Cavalleria Rusticana - 2004: L'Italiana in Algeri - 2006: Il barbiere di Siviglia), Ugo Gregoretti (2002: Il filosofo di campagna), Gabbris Ferrari (2005: Lucia di Lammermoor), Pippo Delbono (2007: Obra Maestra), Alessio Pizzech (2006: La dirindina va to teatro - 2007: Dirindina e Pimpinone - 2008: La Cenerentola), Marco Carniti (2008: Rigoletto), Giorgio Bongiovanni (2008: Don Falcone).
The Teatro Lirico Sperimentale also collaborates with some of Italy's leading opera houses: in 1991 La Cenerentola presented in the Lyric Season to Spoleto was revived and included in the playbill of the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome; (Director Bruno Aprea, director Italo Nunziata); in 1994 in collaboration with the Teatro Comunale di Firenze was produced the 'opera La Bella Verità, presented both at the Ente Lirico di Firenze and at the Teatro Caio Melisso di Spoleto; the collaboration with the Teatro Comunale di Firenze continued in 1996 with the diptych Perso per perso by Guido Baggiani and L'Inganno Felice by G. Rossini (Director Enrique Mazzola, directed by Giorgio Pressburger). Collaborations are also underway with the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, the Stadttheater in Klagenfurt and the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, the Arena Sferisterio in Macerata, Teatro Nazionale in Rome,(Midea2 by Oscar Strasnoy, year 2001). In recent years, the "Sperimentale" Lyric Theatre has broadened its field of action in the field of music education and training by organizing in collaboration with the Region of Umbria, the Province of Perugia and the European Social Fund courses for master collaborators, courses for technicians and piano tuners. The "Sperimentale" also organizes since 1993 the International Competition for new works of musical theater from camera Orpheus, dedicated from this edition to Luciano Berio, who has been president of the International Jury since the first edition. The winningopera will be given its world premiere performance to Spoleto in September 2005. In 1995, the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale, after a Professional Qualification Course for Orchestra Professors, also gave birth to OTLiS, the Orchestra of the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale of Spoleto. Under the guidance of highly qualified professors (Francesco Manara, Luciano Giuliani, Paolo Centurioni, Angelo Persichilli, Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, Spiros Argiris, Massimiliano Stefanelli, Romolo Gessi, Carlo Palleschi, Massimo De Bernart, Bruno Aprea), the students, young instrumentalists graduates, after a national selection face two months of study to Spoleto and then perform the operas of the Opera Season both to Spoleto and in the Regional Opera Season (Perugia, Terni, Orvieto, Todi, Città di Castello). The Orchestra formed by the students of the Course and integrated with some young and already established musicians has also performed in various symphony concerts and participated in the opening night of the First Military World Games - Olympic Stadium Rome (1995). Courses for orchestra professors were also implemented in subsequent years, again in cooperation with the Umbria Region and European Social Fund, and since 1996 have been extended to young instrumentalists from the European Community. The institution received the "Kaleidoscope" Prize for culture from the Commission of the European Communities in 1992 and the prestigious "Abbiati Prize" from the Italian Music Critics in 1994 "for its assiduous contribution to the training of new performers and the conception and implementation of the International Orpheus Competition." The production of Don Giovanni of the 1998 Experimental Opera Season received in May 1999, the special mention of the Pier Luigi Samaritani Prize for the scenes designed from Roberta Lazzeri. In 2001, the National Association of Italian Music Critics awarded to Denis Krief the Abbiati della Critica Prize for the direction of _Carmen _which the French director signed for the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale in the 2000 Opera Season. In 2001, the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale carried out a major project with a European scope: the reworking and orchestral transcription of Bach´s L´Arte della Fuga, coordinated from Luciano Berio. The initiative, approved and co-financed by the European Commission, which decreed it a "European Cultural Event." The project brought to five performances in four countries - 6 Italy, England, France and the Netherlands - with an orchestral ensemble composed from of about 40 elements from leading European music schools: the Conservatoire of Turin, the Conservatoire National Supérieur del Musique et de Danse in Lyon, the Koninklijk Conservatorium of The Hague, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipizig, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. to underscoring the international significance of the project was the direct involvement in the performance realization of renowned European composers, such as Luis De Pablo, Louis Andriessen, Betsy Jolas, Gilberto Bosco, Aldo Clementi, Fabio Nieder, Michele Tadini and Fabio Vacchi.
At the "Centro Studi-Belli Argiris," a historical archive and documentation center of the Experimental Lyric Theater, there is a rich music library and a well-stocked audiovisual library dedicated toopera opera.
In 2009, to Turin, the Institution was awarded the Culture of Management Award for its policies of management, enhancement and promotion of cultural heritage and activities. The award relates not only to the Institution's activities in its 63-year history, but also to the promotion ofOpera Opera abroad, with particular reference to the year 2008.
In 2016, Head of State Sergio Mattarella granted the "Targa del Presidente della Repubblica" the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto "to. Belli" on its 70th anniversary.