XXI Autumn Festival in Catanzaro, the weekend dedicated to Puccini comes to life

John

By John

The Catanzaro programming for the first week of the XXI Autumn Festival, directed and created by Antonietta Santacroce who wanted to open the 2024 edition with an entire weekend dedicated to Giacomo Puccini on the hundredth anniversary of his death. In fact, on Thursday evening it was the turn of Marco Calabrese the fateful ribbon-cutting of the Puccini celebrations with a real guide to listening to “Turandot”, the opera that will be staged this evening at the Politeama Theatre, co-produced by the Autumn Festival together with the Stone Theater Festival . “Turandot and the shadow of a smile” – this is the title of the introductory meeting to the opera evening which took place at Palazzo De Nobili – was able to fill the Concert Hall with a Calabrian, also an opera singer, who he took as the many present and accompanied them through the story of the “frost princess” and the challenge of the three enigmas that will lead Calaf to triumph: between stories, anecdotes, listening and a few smiles, the introduction was much appreciated, as well as exhaustive on curiosities regarding one of Puccini’s major titles.

Yesterday morning, then, it was the turn of the matinee dedicated to the students of the first and second level secondary schools of Catanzaro and the province who were able to attend a dress rehearsal, complete with indications and explanations dedicated to them, as well as by the artistic director Santacroce , also by the director of this evening’s staging, Except Sweet: the children were able to understand the dynamics, the characters, the story and also learn about some aspects of theater in general. Those steps not usually visible to the public were revealed on stage: from the tuning of the orchestra to the warming up of the singers’ voices, to the make-up and hairstyle phases of the many characters.

«The kids were very curious, they downloaded the opera libretto from the QR CODE in the theater – commented Santacroce -, they followed it all and were truly exemplary, attentive and curious about what was happening on stage. One of the objectives of the Autumn Festival is to bring younger people closer to that culture, such as opera, which they don’t listen to because they don’t know it. This morning’s result, therefore, can only please us enormously».

Then yesterday evening in the suggestive Oratory of the Carmine church, right in the historic center, it was the moment of the lyrical gala of the Fonè trio, made up of Giovanni Mazzuca on the piano, but also transcriber of the pieces proposed for trio, Giuseppe Arnaboldi on the violin and Sabina Fedele to the viola who accompanied – and did much more – the soprano Giorgia Teodoro and the tenor Alessandro D’Acrissain a roundup of Puccini’s major titles, through arias such as “Recondita armonia”, “E lucevan le stelle” and “Vissi d’arte” from Tosca, “Un bel dì visto” from Madama Butterfly, “Nessun dorma” from Turandot , “O my dear father” by Gianni Schicchi. And for the grand finale, we opted for the arias “Che gelida manina” and “Sì, mi bambini Mimì”, then the duet “O soave fanciulla”, all from Bohéme, welcomed with jubilation by all those present, who gave the five a very long and heartfelt applause, a sort of energetic hug and a well-deserved standing ovation. We remind you that the opera gala will be repeated Sunday evening at 6pm in Borgiawhere Palazzo Mazza will be inaugurated, recently renovated and reopened to the public from Sunday, and Sunday 20 Octoberalways at 6pm in the church of the Santissima Annunziata in Santa Caterina Borgo.

The other events of this weekend of the Autumn Festival – supported by the Calabria Region/Calabria Straordinaria, through the 2014/20 Pac funds; from the Chamber of Commerce of Catanzaro, Crotone and Vibo Valentia, from the Municipality of Catanzaro, from the Carical Foundation as well as from various private bodies – continue today at the Oratorio del Carmine at 11 with the conference “The Pekins and the Silk Roads from China to Catanzaro” edited by Oreste Sergi Pirro who will focus in particular on the very precious Pekins produced in the city, and also present in the first 1924 staging of Puccini’s opera “Turandot”; at 6pm in the cloister of Palazzo De Nobili there will be a national premiere of the original production of the Autumn Festival “My journey to Beijing”, the original musical work by Alessandro Meacci with Meacci himself on the piano together with the performer Erica Salbego and to the dancer Diana Neumannwhich will tell the love story between Marco Polo and Hao Dong. Finally, great appointment at 9pm at Politeama with “Turandot”, with the Sicilian Lyric Choir, the Calabria Philharmonic Orchestra, and an international cast of singers.