Organization

Wexford Festival Opera

Singer

Tenor

Conor Prendiville

Pasquale Sciortino

Julian Henao Gonzalez

Un Ragazzo

Erin Fflur Williams

Maria Sciortino

Una donna

Will Searle

Uomo Fuori Scena

Un Uomo

Christian Loizou

Soldato 2

Conductor

Francesco Cilluffo

Stage director

Rosetta Cucchi

Set designer

Tiziano Santi

Costume designer

Claudia Pernigotti

Lighting designer

Daniele Naldi

Soprano

Na'ama Goldman

Cesira

Jade Phoenix

Rosetta

Leonardo Caimi

Michele

Baritone

Devid Cecconi

Giovanni

Bass

Alexander Kiechle

Von Bock

Allen Boxer

Lt. John Buckley

Mezzo-soprano

Carolyn Dobbin

Lena

Others

Wexford Festival Opera Chorus

Orchestra

Wexford Festival Orchestra

Meilir Jones

Soldato 1

Soldato 3

Luisa Baldinetti

Dancer

Andrea Bassi

Roberto Capone

Yaimara Gomez Fabre

Miryam Tomè

Andrea Zanforlin

Assistant Stage Director

Stefania Panighini

Assistant Set designer

Veronica Lattuada

Grace Maria Wain

Una Popolana

ítalska

La Ciociara

Wexford

Ireland

O’Reilly Theatre

La Ciociara Tutino

Public

Private

enska

Approved

Operas based on movies — more often than not themselves based on books — have become an increasing feature of the operatic landscape in recent decades. La Ciociarais probably best known in the 1960 film adaptation (Two Women) starring Sophia Loren, which, as directed by Vittorio de Sica, won her an Academy Award for Best Actress and made her the first such winner for a non-English film. It followed only three years after the publication of Alberto Moravia’s novel of the same name, telling the harrowing story of a woman attempting to shield her teenage daughter from the horrors of war and in particular the weapon of rape in the aftermath of the Battle of Monte Cassino. A television adaptation also followed in the 1960s, and much more recently an operatic version was commissioned from the composer Marco Tutino by San Francisco Opera. With a cast led by Anna Caterina Antonacci, it was premiered there in June 2015.

The anti-fascist Moravia (1907-90) took refuge during World War II in the province of Frosinone, not far from his native Rome, a region the fascists named ‘Ciociara’, and his experience there found its way into the novel. The much younger Tutino, born in Milan in 1954, has written about a dozen operas, including an adaption of Sándor Márai’s Embers (Le braci). One of his earliest operas was La lupa, a verismo work designed to celebrate the centenary of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and very much in keeping with his manifesto as a founding member of the Neo-Romantico group of composers.

He has indeed described La Ciociara as ‘neo verismo’, and knows of what he speaks: in parallel with his composition work, Tutino has held a series of artistic directorships including at prominent Italian opera houses, and is deeply steeped in operatic culture. He has revised the orchestration for La Ciociara, meaning that Wexford will give the professional premiere of the opera’s new version.

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