The leading cast of the Sicilia Classica Festival is preparing to make its debut at the Politeama Theater in Catanzaro. The co-production and synergistic collaboration with the Politeama Foundation has been made official, the organization that aims to spread the culture of classical music and enhance the most beautiful theaters in Italy, is preparing to bring the verismo operas Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci to the “Mario Foglietti” next Saturday 25 November, and Verdi’s La Traviata on 4 January 2024.
“We are very happy with this new debut in a modern theater in Southern Italy, which had not offered opera performances for more than a year and a half,” he declares. Nuccio AnselmoArtistic Director of the Sicilia Classica Festival – and honored to re-propose two important cornerstones of the musical and theatrical tradition on the Catanzaro stage”.
“Politeama wanted to focus on this artistic and organizational partnership – adds the general director of the Foundation, Aldo Costa – with the aim of strengthening the noble tradition of opera theater and opening new paths with emerging realities that share the same commitment. A double event that will attract not only the loyal public of enthusiasts, but which is also aimed at involving and attracting all the cultural energies of the area”.
The organizational machine of the Sicilia Classica Festival is at work to export to the Calabrian capital the complete cast made up of exceptional names of national and international caliber: for Cavalleria Rusticana, the soprano Natasha Katai he will play Santuzza, the tenor Alberto Profeta will be Turiddu, the mezzo-soprano Marta Di Stefano will perform the role of Mamma Lucia, the baritone Jorge Tello in Alfio, and the mezzo-soprano Valentina Vinti it will be Lola.
The opera written by Leoncavallo, Pagliacci, will instead feature the soprano Isidora Moles in Nedda, the tenor Alberto Profeta in Canio, of the baritone Jorge Tello in Tonio, the tenor Lorenzo Papasodero in Beppe and the baritone Giovanni Palminteri in Silvio. The Maestro will conduct the Orchestra and Choir of the Sicilia Classica Festival Francesco Di Mauro, also Sicilian known internationally for his artistic curriculum. The two shows, which will be staged together, are proposed in a version in which dance will have a central role, enriching the original structure of the works.
“A choice made last summer, at the Teatro Antico in Taormina – comments the director Francesco Ciprì – received success and approval from critics and the public. Maintaining faith in the classicism of the two realism works par excellence, we wanted to introduce a modern element that could give greater dynamism to the story of these two masterpieces by Mascagni and Leoncavallo. The result was surprising.”
The choreographies bear the signature of Stefania Cotroneothe costumes of Fabrizio ButtiglieriOrchestra Conductor Francesco Di Maurodirected by Francesco Ciprì and artistic direction of Nuccio Anselmo.