Opera lirica in tre atti di Giuseppe Verdi
Within Gaulitana: a Festival of Music
Full scale opera in Gozo returns in May, thanks to the Gaulitanus Choir who is consolidating last year’s experiment of a fully-fledged opera in spring, and returning to the Aurora, this time with Rigoletto.
Piero Terranova as Rigoletto
As the 9th edition of Gaulitana: A Festival of Musical ready kicked off, the opera production of Rigoletto comes towards the end of this 6-week long festival, on Friday 22nd May 2015 at 8pm. The title role will be interpreted by Piero Terranova, whose career has seen him appear in many prestigious theatres such as Italy’s La Scala, La Fenice, San Carlo, Berlin’s Deutsche Oper and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and working with conductors and directors as Muti, Sinopli, Palumbo, Zeffirelli, De Ana and Vick. Only last October he was in Gozo at the Astra Theatre singing the title role of Nabucco.
Emerging Moldovian soprano Natalia Roman, will appear as Gilda. After first interpreting the role at the Arena di Verona, Roman has taken the Italian operatic scene by storm and her interpretations of the bel canto repertoire are highly acclaimed in the demanding Italian press. The Duke of Mantua will be Italian tenor Giorgio Casciarri who has graced most of the world’s leading opera houses including the La Scala, the Metropolitan and the Vienna Staatoper. He has sung The Duke of Mantua for some 250 since he debut. No wonder it is considered as his cavallo di battaglia.
Audiences for the Gozo opera, particularly at the Aurora should be familiar with the Italian Bass Emanuele Cordaro (who appeared in Trovatore (2014)) and the Polish mezzo Agata Bienkowska (who appeared as Meg in Falstaff (2013)). They shall return after their respective successes, this time as Sparafucile and Maddalena.
Monterone, whose curse is the fulcrum of the opera’s plot, will be Salvatore di Salvo, Dave Monaco will be Borsa, Alberto Maria Munafo will be Ceprano and Marvo Tinnirello will be Marullo. The cast is then complimented by Maltese artistes May Caruana as Giovanna, Patricia Buttigieg as Countess Ceprano, Annabelle Zammit as the Page, and David Debono as the Herald.
Per info e prenotazioni: teatruaurora@leone.org.mt tel. (+356) 79045779