Rustic Chivalry by Mascagni, tirs. 21 nov. 2017, Fra (2017/2017), Instrueret af Cristina Mazzavillani Muti, Dirigent Vladimir Ovodok, Teatro Dante Alighieri, Ravenna, Italy

On the Verge of the 20th Century The sunset of an epoch merges into the dawn of a new era: Italian melodrama found new life at the close of the 19th century. Those were the years when everything inevitably led towards modernity, which would explode in the heart of the twentieth century and irradiate down to us. In 1890, Cavalleria Rusticana conquered the theatres with its dazzling expressive immediacy, imposing “realism” in music. Two years later, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci transformed an old real-life incident into a gloomy story of relentless passion. It was the explosion of what Verdi had called “parola scenica”, which threw new light on a century-long tradition. A light that shined fully in the tragic heroism of Puccini’s Tosca, whose dramatic strength and sophistication opened the new century. Three operas, three different titles presented on the same stage on consecutive nights, in a real operatic “tour de force”: once again, the Festival manages to turn the Alighieri Theatre into an unremitting production machine. And the space on stage becomes a claustrophobic enclosure of distress, opening, closing, transforming, giving voice and substance to the tragedies that inform these masterpieces: death in duel, suicide, murder… going all the way to test these feelings. Visionary projections for the overwhelming passion of Cavalleria Rusticana, sharp shards of light for Pagliacci, more lights and projections for the suffocating Roman atmosphere of Tosca. Bold young voices, and the matching freshness of a conducting style forged in this very theatre, at Riccardo Muti’s Italian Opera Academy. “Cavalleria rusticana” and “Pagliacci” – remix A surprising encounter between many young people, from 8 to 18, and two century-old Italian operas still captivating the heart and imagination of generations of spectators. They have been given a nineteenth-century theatre, where cutting-edge technologies contribute to keeping the magic of opera alive, and the freedom of putting their creative energies to test. Thus an original, unexpected narration is born and the beloved stories of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are brought to new life by the voices and the talent of young people, who experience the operatic world with a curiosity about to turn into passion.