Bellini and I puritani: epilogue for the musician from Catania whose earthly journey was too short and the focus of the sixth edition of the Bellini International Context with over thirty appointments from 15 September to 4 October. The opera which marked the operatic itinerary of the musician from Catania in Paris in 1835, with Fabrizio Maria Carminati on the podium, directed by Renato Bonajuto and the new staging (Arcangelo Mazza, sets and video), Giovanna Giorgianni, costumes) will be staged in Catania on 23 September at 8.30pm at the Metropolitan Theater (the Massimo Bellini is closed for adaptation works) with performances until 1 October and with Jessica Pratt in the role of Elvira and Dmitry Korchak in that of Arturo, Irina Lungu and Valerio Borgioni in the second cast.
The Bellini International Context was presented to the press yesterday morning at Palazzo d’Orleans. «Investing in events like this festival – wrote the president of the Sicilian Region Renato Schifani – means believing in culture as an instrument of identity, growth and attractiveness of Sicily at a national and international level». Six editions, over thirty events, nine institutions involved between Catania, Palermo, Messina and Agrigento. The event is directly promoted by the Sicilian Region through the Department of Tourism, Sport and Entertainment and Councilor Elvira Amato underlines the synergy: «Teamwork and the growth of participation in this event where communication is important». But why Bellini? «Bellini is the lighthouse – the superintendent of the Catania Theater Giovanni Cultrera di Montesano has focused on the perenniality of his music – in today’s condition of such a stormy world. He can spread, above all, the values of love and peace with his music which goes beyond any time limit.”
And in the full immersion between operas, concerts, musicological meetings, contaminations between prose and music that will involve Catania, Caterina Andò, communications manager, focuses attention on the values of melodrama, between Elvira’s madness of love and the nobility of characters in the Puritans in a reality of contrasts between Cromwell and the Stuarts in the libretto by the liberal Carlo Pepoli: perennial situations to reflect on.
From 15 September at Villa Bellini with Rossini who tells the debut of Puritani and Marin Faliero to 4 October at the Metropolitan for the celebration of the 2755 years of the foundation of the city of Catania as an epilogue of the festival, in very quick quotation here is «Rita» by Donizetti on the 19th at the Cortile Platamone, Danilo Rea on the piano on the 20th at the Sangiorgi Theater with the actor Cesare Bocci, the proposal of Bellini’s opera on 26 at the Cortile Platamone by the youth orchestra of the Conservatory.
There will be three symphonic events at the Vittorio Emanuele in Messina, on the common thread of Italian romantic opera: the Theater Orchestra will be conducted by Samuele Galeano in the first event (17 September) and by Francesco Ommassini in the second (26), vocal soloists will be the soprano Gilda Fiume and the tenor Dave Monaco; the third event (29th) features the Giuseppe Sinopoli National Youth Orchestra, director José Jésus Olivetti, soloists the soprano Giuliano Di Stefano and the violinist Vikram Francesco Sedona (29th September). Two concerts proposed by the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra Foundation, the 25th at the Politeama Garibaldi in Palermo and the 26th at the Pirandello in Agrigento and an “anthological” chamber music evening on the 27th at Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo.