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Organization

Donizetti Opera

Singer

Daniele Lettieri

Anselmo

Mezzo-soprano

Gaia Petrone

Sabina

Baritone

Omar Montanari

Don Petronio

Fabio Capitanucci

Trifoglio

Manuela Custer

Anastasia

Conductor

Stefano Montanari

Stage director

Davide Marranchelli

Lighting designer

Alessandro Carletti

Costume designer

Linda Riccardi

Set designer

Anna Bonomelli

Tenor

Giorgio Misseri

Claudio

Chorus master

Salvo Sgrò

Eleonora Deveze

Rosaura

Fabio Tartari

Lighting assistant

Ludovico Gobbi

Assistant Director

Caterina Denti

Fondazione Teatro Donizetti

Others

Coro Donizetti Opera

Orchestra

Orchestra Gli originali

Italian

Le nozze in villa

Bergamo

Italy

Teatro Donizetti

At the beginning of 1819, Gaetano Donizetti is a twenty-two year old composer who made his debut just the previous year, linked to the wandering company of the impresario Paolo Zancla and a strong association with Bortolomeo Merelli, from Bergamo like him and at the time a librettist before becoming one of the most important and successful Italian entrepreneurs of the nineteenth century. In the Carnival season of '18' -19 'Zancla's company was in Mantua to stage Clotilde di Coccia , which however had a disastrous outcome: not only cooked pears were thrown onto the stage at the prima donna, but even an incendiary piece who luckily just burned the hem of her costume instead of charring the entire theater. Zancla reacted by staging Rossini's L ' italiana in Algeri and summoning the young creative couple MerelliDonizetti to Mantua, who produced Le wedding in villa , a typical comic opera of those years, based on a comedy by Kotzebue translated into Italy as I Provinciali . Little is known about the outcome of the work; it was probably a fiasco, even if it was later revived in Treviso in the spring of 1820 and then in Genoa two years later. The work also presents numerous textual problems, starting from the fact that its autograph does not exist, that the musical sources are lost and that the quintet of the second act, “Aura gentil, che mormori” is completely missing. As part of the # Donizetti200 project, the Festival presents the first modern edition of this title which had remained, until today, quite "mysterious" (there are very few sources that speak of it). The missing Quintet is no longer so because it was composed by Elio and Rocco Tanica with the collaboration of Enrico Melozzi. The production is inspired by philological criteria for the musical part, with the use of the diapason of the time and "historically informed" instrumentalists, and by references to current events for the stage, in search of that satire and fun that Donizetti tried to offer to the difficult Mantuan public, always remaining in the wake of the greatest excellent opera player of his time, Rossini, who is the most evident model of Wedding in the villa . Another piece in the rediscovery of Donizetti's work, aware as we are that the more Donizetti we know, the better he is. 


Overview 

At the beginning of 1819, Gaetano Donizetti was a 22yearold composer who had just made his debut the previous year . He was linked to the wandering company of the impresario Paolo Zancla and was strongly bound to Bortolomeo Merelli, from Bergamo like him and at the time a librettist, before he became one of the most important and successful Italian impresarios of the nineteenth century. During the Carnival season of 1818-19, Zancla’s company was in Mantua to stage  Clotilde  by Coccia, which however had a disastrous outcome: the prima donna was thrown on stage not only cooked pears, but even an incendiary piece that luckily only burnt the edge of her costume instead of setting the entire theatre on fire. As a response, Zancla staged Ross ini’s  L’italiana in Algeri  and summoned to Mantua the young creative couple MerelliDonizetti, who pro duced  Le nozze in villa , a typical opera buffa of the time, based on a comedy by Kotzebue translated into Italian as  I provinciali . Little is known about the outcome of the opera; it was probably a fiasco, al though it was revived in Treviso in the spring of 1820 and then in Genoa two years later . The work also presents numerous textual problems, starting with the fact that there is no autograph copy, that the musical sources are dispersed and that the quintet of the second act, “Aura gentil, che mormori”, is com pletely missing . As part of the #Donizetti200 pro ject, the Festival will present the first modern perfor mance of this title, which has remained, until today, quite “mysterious” (very few sources speak about it). The quintet is no longer missing, because it was newly by Elio and Rocco Tanica with the collabora tion of Enrico Melozzi. The production is inspired by philological criteria for the musical part, with the use of the tuning fork of the time and “historically informed” instrumentalists, and by references to current events for the scenic part. The aim is to retrieve the satiric and funny work that Donizetti tried to offer to the difficult Mantuan audience, always remaining in the wake of the most illustrious com poser of his time, Rossini, who is the obvious model for the  Nozze in Villa . This is a further step in the re discovery of Donizetti’s works, as we are aware that the more Donizetti is known the bettr.

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