Six performances of Mascagni's
Amica will take place in the coming days in Rome: Tuesday 7, Wednesday 8, Thursday 9 and Friday 10 at 8:30 PM, Saturday 11 at 6 PM, and Sunday October 12 at 5 PM.
Contrary to what was thought earlier, the work will be given in the original French with Italian supertitles, which is excellent news as Mascagni composed the music directly to the French libretto by Choudens. Only later was the libretto translated to Italian, in a translation which I think is quite coarse.
The last time the opera was performed in Rome was on May 13, 1905, in the Italian version, conducted by Mascagni himself, as he took the habit of conducting his own works early in the career.
Hisorically,
Amica is one of the least performed Mascagni operas, especially in French. It is therefore encouraging to see renewed interest in this extremely interesting work (with "echoes of Wagner, Mahler and Ravel" according to Antonino Fogliani), after the performances in French at Martina Franca in 2007. The upcoming performances in the beautiful setting of the Rome opera house promise higher quality and will hopefully do justice to the work.
The cast will be as follows:
- Conductor: Antonino Fogliani
- Amica: Amarilli Nizza / Patrizia Orciani
- Giorgio: Enrique Ferrer / Maurizio Comencini
- Rinaldo: Alberto Mastromarino / Angelo Veccia
- Padron Camoine: Marcello Lippi
- Maddalena: Lucia Mastromarino
- Orchestra and chorus of the Rome opera
- Chorus master: Andrea Giorgi
- Mise en scène: Jean Louis Grinda
- Sets: Rudy Sabounghi
- Teresa Acone: costumes
- Laurent Castaingt: lights
References:
These performances are co-produced with Opéra di Montecarlo and Teatro Carlo Goldoni of Livorno.
Pianist Marco Sollini is playing today at the Cherry Hill Plantation in North Carolina. Sollini "oversaw the publication by Boccaccini and Spada of the piano music of Puccini, Mascagni, Giordano, Leoncavallo, and Bellini as well as chamber music by Rossini and Mascagni" (as reported in the article linked below).
