Le Nozze di Figaro

A new production of Le nozze di Figaro, directed by Adrian Schvarzstein, assistant director and choreographer Jūratė Širvytė-Rukštelė, costumes and sets by Lilli Hartmann and lighting design by Marco Cazzola, goes on stage.

The chosen setting is that of the miserable Roman suburbs of the 1960s. As in Ettore Scola’s masterpiece Brutti, sporchi e cattivi, “the characters in this play,” explains director Schvarzstein, “mingle in a continuous back-and-forth of events that are the result of social tension, fail to fulfill themselves and want to involve others in their failure. The Spanish-Argentinean director takes Beaumarchais’ provocations and brings them to the stage: the Mozart opera thus becomes an opportunity to “smile at conventions, and especially at the different social classes that today, effectively, make no sense.”

Conducting the opera is Massimo Raccanelli (currently artistic director of the Filarmonia Veneta). Leone Magiera, discoverer of such talents as Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni, continues for this production the “scouting” work he undertook with the previous Don Giovanni (in which he selected talented under-35s from among more than 300 young singers from all over the world). For Le nozze di Figaro he selected and prepared a vocal cast composed of Guido Dazzini (Conte), Giovanni Luca Failla (Figaro), Marta Lazzaro (Contessa), Gesua Gallifoco (Susanna), Silvia Caliò (Barbarina), Alessandra Adorno (Marcellina), Nicolò Balducci (Cherubino), Gianluca Convertino (Antonio and Bartolo), and Lorenzo Martelli (Don Basilio and Don Curzio). Starting June 12 they have been in Ferrara for a masterclass, conducted by Magiera himself, dedicated to them in preparation for their debut.