Profile reviews
9esemplare Melitone di Marco Filippo Romano. Di solito, questa parte istiga i peggiori crimini contro il buongusto; Romano fa invece un Melitone giustamente severo, tetro, arrabbiatissimo con il mondo intero. E' un Don Magnifico sopravvissuto a Cenerentola e preoccupatissimo che da qualche parte sbuchi un altro Principe a rompergli le scatole.
Eccellenti sia Alessio Arduini (Dandini) che Marco Filippo Romano (Don Magnifico), i due più completi per vocalità e capacità attoriali. A loro si è dovuto un meraviglioso “Un segreto d’importanza” e molti momenti comici tra cui uno splendido “Sia qualunque delle figlie”, realizzato meravigliosamente da Romano, che ha tratteggiato un Don Magnifico goffo e arrivista senza mai scadere nel triviale.
Past Production Reviews
5Every July and August, the French are known to migrate south to the midi; at the same time, Italians migrate south to the mezzogiorno. For nearly half a century now, opera lovers amongst them – augmented more recently by an increasing clutch of foreigners – make their way to the olive groves, vineyards and hill towns of Puglia, in particular to Martina Franca, the home of the Festival della Valle d’Itria, where they will find opera that’s not in the mainstream repertoire sung by aspiring performers whose careers haven’t yet taken them to the biggest houses. If you’re from the British Isles, you can view it as a cross between Garsington and Wexford, with the addition of a lot of white marble; the operas are performed in the gracious courtyard of the ducal palace.
Nina Solodovinkova also brought a vibrant coloratura soprano to the role of Annetta particularly in her Act one aria. Here she used the line to her advantage as her soprano moved with great flexibility, her timbre melting from one phrase into the other; she also interpolated some potent high notes.
The vocal cast was of a good level. One must not look for the most interesting interpreters in Pietro, entrusted to Roberto de Candia's sure craft, or in Francisco Brito's Carlo, a correct but slightly bland tenor. Here the scene was stolen by the acting effervescence and the remarkable vocal presence of Marco Filippo Romano, a basso buffo who sang the exhilarating role of Ser Cuccupis, the local magistrate. Even the other basso, Tommaso Barea, was a very effective performer as the usurer Firman-Trombest, while Marcello Nardis gave voice to the character of Hondediski, a prototype for L'elisir's Belcore. Among the female performers, it was not the slender, though agile, voice of Nina Solodovnikova (Annetta) that excited, but Loriana Castellano and Paola Gardina, as Caterina and Madama Fritz respectively, to whom Donizetti devotes two masterful pages right at the end of the opera: to the Tsarina the aria “Pace una volta, e calma” with a noble Mozartian tempo, and to the innkeeper a scene with rondo “In questo estremo amplesso” of huge theatrical effect. In both numbers the two singers demonstrated expressive qualities and vocal preciousness that have given an extra dimension to their characters. For the staging of this rare title, Francesco Micheli, artistic director of the festival, summoned the Roman collective Ondadurto Teatro (Marco Paciotti and Lorenzo Pasquali), a company known for its interdisciplinary shows, ranging from nouveau cirque to physical theatre, from dance to gesture. On their debut in the world of opera, their juvenile zeal was appreciated. However it led sometimes to the excesses of a horror vacui (mimes, trapeze artists, video projections) which were often intrusive. In the scenery and in the costumes, the geometric and colourful elements of Russian abstract (Kandinsky and above all Malevič) were recognised, forcefully adapted to a story set in Peter the Great's Russia. The rigidity of the unusual costumes designed by K.B. Project did not restrict the freedom of the characters, but underlined their overall schematic pattern.
Umjubelt dagegen Laura Nicorescu: Die Fiordiligi dieses Abends ist eine echte Entdeckung! Koloraturensicher, groß im Stimmvolumen, felsenfest sicher in Höhe wie Tiefe, aber zugleich auch feinster Lyrik fähig – und dabei noch eine temperamentvolle Erscheinung.
Francesca Di Sauro , who is a mezzo-soprano, is here called to test a decidedly soprano part. He disengages himself with style and exquisite musicality in his arias; in the second, “Gentil parlar con proprio cantar”, he manages to solve with a beautiful timbre the staked notes and blooms that, here as elsewhere, the part requires. He does it with class, stage presence with charming and charming feminine features and earns all the merits necessary to make his Vespetta a well-rounded character. Marco Filippo Romano, who is at the comic opera as sun and sea are integral parts of the Neapolitan landscape perspectives, is a Pimpinone that the show presents almost as a greedy Jew in a sharp white beard; truly memorable is the interpretation offered by the now well-established Sicilian funny baritone, irresistible when he intones the aria of the third act "I know what you say, I know what you do", in which he sings alone as if he were in a "trio" in to which he imitates with a well projected falsetto voice two wives who confront each other complaining about the tyranny of their husbands. Francesca Di Sauro , who is a mezzo-soprano, is here called to test a decidedly soprano part. He disengages himself with style and exquisite musicality in his arias; in the second, “Gentil parlar con proprio cantar”, he manages to solve with a beautiful timbre the staked notes and blooms that, here as elsewhere, the part requires. He does it with class, stage presence with charming and charming feminine features and earns all the merits necessary to make his Vespetta a well-rounded character. Marco Filippo Romano, who is at the comic opera as sun and sea are integral parts of the Neapolitan landscape perspectives, is a Pimpinone that the show presents almost as a greedy Jew in a sharp white beard; truly memorable is the interpretation offered by the now well-established Sicilian funny baritone, irresistible when he intones the aria of the third act "I know what you say, I know what you do", in which he sings alone as if he were in a "trio" in to which he imitates with a well projected falsetto voice two wives who confront each other complaining about the tyranny of their husbands.
