Organization

Conductor

Lorenzo Tazzieri

Stage director

Carmelo Alù

Set designer

Marina Conti

Singer

Tenor

Marco Miglietta

Silvano

Baritone

Tomohiro Nomachi

Renzo

Soprano

Laura Stella

Matilde

Mezzo-soprano

Mariangela Zito

Rosa

Teatro Goldoni

Orchestra

Goldoni Theater Orchestra

Others

Goldoni Theater Chorus

Livorno

Italy

Mascagni Festival

Terrazza Mascagni

Silvano Mascagni

Public

Private

Approved

Five weeks after the world premiere of Guglielmo Ratcliff, at which point Pietro Mascagni's life opera, still at La Scala, Silvano is staged. It was March 25, 1895. One cannot speak of a success. Mascagni, seized by the desire to see his beloved Ratcliff on stage, worked on Silvano very hastily and what's more, the austere Scala setting is too formal for the representation of a small "verista" opera. And it must also be said that on this occasion the librettist Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti does not do an excellent job. Thus Silvano's coming into the world passes rather in silence. We can say that it is a pity because the new work presents, at the beginning of the second act, twenty minutes of beautiful music, in which naturalistic references are perceived, the gleam of the moonlight and the voice of the surf on calm nights on the waterfront. The sensation is not epidermal since, precisely in those years, Mascagni deepened his pictorial knowledge, above all with regard to "post-Macchiaioli" artists such as Adolfo, Angiolo and Lodovico Tommasi, such as Plinio Nomellini (whose
close friend, also due to obvious similarities of character), such as Guglielmo Micheli and some southern naturalists such as Giuseppe Casciaro. More and more one comes to think of Silvano as a work
estranged from the subject, but wholly immersed in the environment and, if we want to look for some musical parallelism, let's put it in relation to Debussy's Voiles, to the piano cycle La maison dans les dunes by Dupont, – other French “verista” – or Elgar's Sea pictures. On 23 June 1902, in Florence, Mascagni signed a contract with the New York firm Liebler & Co for the composition of
incidental music for a drama by the English writer Thomas Henry Hall Caine, a stage adaptation of a previous novel of the same name by the same author, from title The eternal city. For the
sum of 25,000 thousand lire Pietro Mascagni undertook to deliver by 1 September 1902 "a prelude, four interludes, and the necessary incidental music [...] of high artistic value worthy of his fame in every way". The contract was honoured, and the Incidental music was duly performed the following 2 October in London together with the first performance of Hall Caine's play. The Eternal City, played by a beloved actress like Viola Allen, was staged for an infinite number of evenings, over 200, then crossed the ocean to be performed in New York. Mascagni's music was unanimously acclaimed. For a long time the Incidental music to the Eternal City by Hall Caine was considered a kind of phoenix.
Everyone knew that Pietro Mascagni had composed it, no one knew where it was. The printed piano reduction existed (reduction by HM Higgs,
Metzler editions), but the score was considered lost.

The scope of work was as follows:

– Prelude (allegro brillant)
– Intermezzo between act 1 and 2 (andante molto sostenuto)
– Interlude between act 2 and 3 (sostenuto)
– Interlude (Carnival) between act 3 and 4
(Allegretto lively e spigliato)
– Interlude between act 4 and 5 (Andante majesty and sustained –
– Largo passionate – A tempo con moto. Tempo I – The bells of
Rome)
– Serenade, Act 5 (Andante un poco sustained – Andantino) words by
Hall Caine “How long will you love me, my Lady?”

As is often the case for music applied to the theater, or of precise literary inspiration, each piece is accompanied by a brief summary of what is happening on the stage to direct the sense
of listening. The year of composition of The Eternal City (1902) suggested that it was interesting matter, but nothing tangible. As far as performance history is concerned, we know that after the English and American representative cycle, Pietro Mascagni performed his entire suite in Livorno, at the end of a recital by Guglielmo Ratcliff (Teatro Goldoni, 12 September 1903) and that he himself, between 1928 and 1933, he resurrected the "Carnival" on the occasion of three concerts he conducted in Santa Cecilia. We can add that in 1908 Hall Caine revived his work with a new title, The eternal question, and also in this case Mascagni's music was performed. Then nothing more. The recent American discovery of the score has dispelled any doubts. The Mascagni Festival is therefore delighted to be able to present this Mascagna composition again in Livorno after exactly 120 years of absence. Elsewhere it will also be interesting to explore the themes of Hall Caine's work and its link with Mascagni's music. Silvia Da Boit and the soprano Manuela Custer who performs all over the world from the Teatro alla Scala to the Salzburg Festival with a vast repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary including the great masterpieces of Italian bel canto, with conductors such as Chailly, Chung , Gardiner, Gelmetti, Harding, Luisi, Marcon, Matheuz, Noseda, Oren, Rousset, Rustioni, Valčuha, Viotti, Wellber and directors such as Abbado, Carsen, Cigni, Copley, Crivelli, De Ana, Fo, Gandin. Elsewhere it will also be interesting to explore the themes of Hall Caine's work and its link with Mascagni's music. Silvia Da Boit and the soprano Manuela Custer who performs all over the world from the Teatro alla Scala to the Salzburg Festival with a vast repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary including the great masterpieces of Italian bel canto, with conductors such as Chailly, Chung , Gardiner, Gelmetti, Harding, Luisi, Marcon, Matheuz, Noseda, Oren, Rousset, Rustioni, Valčuha, Viotti, Wellber and directors such as Abbado, Carsen, Cigni, Copley, Crivelli, De Ana, Fo, Gandin. Elsewhere it will also be interesting to explore the themes of Hall Caine's work and its link with Mascagni's music. Silvia Da Boit and the soprano Manuela Custer who performs all over the world from the Teatro alla Scala to the Salzburg Festival with a vast repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary including the great masterpieces of Italian bel canto, with conductors such as Chailly, Chung , Gardiner, Gelmetti, Harding, Luisi, Marcon, Matheuz, Noseda, Oren, Rousset, Rustioni, Valčuha, Viotti, Wellber and directors such as Abbado, Carsen, Cigni, Copley, Crivelli, De Ana, Fo, Gandin.

italiano

Silvano by Mascagni, From (2023/2023), Directed by Carmelo Alù,, Conductor Lorenzo Tazzieri, Terrazza Mascagni, Livorno, Italy

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues