The Donizetti Opera is a festival that keeps up with the times. Deeply anchored to the territory in which it takes place, proudly 2.0. In Bergamo they seem to have found the right formula to combine the world of opera on the one hand with culture, tourism and territorial marketing on the other: all in the name of their more illustrious fellow citizen, Gaetano Donizetti.
Just take a look at the festival's social networks to understand the effervescence that revolves around the event which this year reaches its fifth edition with a longer program than in the past, the first thermometer to measure its success. It is the artistic director himself, Francesco Micheli, who spends himself personally, with irony and lightness, in promoting the international festival which will open on November 14 with a gala evening: in the promotional clippini he addresses the Maestro who, from time to time time, he becomes "the Tarantino of Val Brembana", the "bocia", the "manufacturer of operas".
The city thanks so much that some time ago the municipal administration proclaimed Bergamo "City of Gaetano Donizetti" by renewing the road signs. The public thanks too, given that the 2018 edition recorded a 30,1% increase in attendance at the festival, with a surge in foreign music lovers and young people under 30.
Until December 29st, during the three weekends around Donizetti's diesnatalis (November XNUMXth), appointments take place in many places in the city: from the two theaters, Donizetti and Sociale, to historic houses, from the funicular station that leads to the Upper Town up to the musical marathon made with SACBO at Milan Bergamo Airport.
It begins on 14 November at the Sociale: on the podium the music director of the Festival Riccardo Frizza conducting the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in a program dedicated to the composer's music. Soloists are soprano Carmela Remigio, artist in residence for the 2019 edition of the Festival, and baritone Alessandro Corbelli in his debut at the Donizetti Opera, joined by other exceptional "debutantes" such as soprano Marta Torbidoni, tenor Konu Kim and baritone Florian Sempey.
The novelty of 2019 is the construction site of the Donizetti Theater. Closed for renovations in summer 2017, the theatre, built in 1791, is located in the heart of the lower city. It will be ready in 2020 after 18 million euros of investments (private donors have contributed 9,5 million): meanwhile, just in these days, the Cantiere del Teatro stops to host the world debut of the opera's staging " L'Ange de Nisida”, a French work by Donizetti which was believed lost after its (non) debut in 1839 and which instead was recovered and reconstructed by Candida Mantica, a Calabrian researcher with a doctorate at Southhampton University, who worked for eight years on handwritten folios in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.
“The world debut of a Donizetti opera is an indescribable experience – says Micheli, here also in the role of director – There are no words to describe what we are feeling in giving birth to an opera by our great fellow citizen. In such an uncommon operation, I felt the duty to take care of the first staging: it seemed important to me to give life to the work that has not yet been born, in the womb of the theater dedicated to our master. The Donizetti construction site will be Ange's delivery room, with the stage placed on the still empty stalls and the audience all around this fragile creature, like a family anxiously welcoming a newborn baby”. The Donizetti Opera Orchestra will be conducted by Jean-Luc Tingaud, with the baritone Florian Sempey in the role of Don Fernand d'Aragon, Federico Benetti in Le Moine, the tenor Konu Kim will be Leone de Casaldi, the Russian soprano Lidia Fridman will by Comtesse Sylvia de Linarès (Construction site of the Donizetti Theater, 16 and 21 November, 20.30pm).
There are two other titles on the bill at the Teatro Sociale. For the #donizetti200 project – the yearly staging of a work by the composer who turns two centuries old – the 1819 title “Pietro il Grande kzar delle Russie” was chosen, directed by Rinaldo Alessandrini at the helm of The Originals, a new team orchestral concert promoted by the Donizetti Theater Foundation which will perform the score with historical instruments. The direction is entrusted to Ondadurto Teatro di Marco Paciotti and Lorenzo Pasquali, also creators of the machinery and sets. The vocal cast sees the baritone Roberto De Candia in the role of Pietro, also making his debut at the Donizetti Opera. The role of Caterina is entrusted to Loriana Castellano, that of Madama Fritz to Paola Gardina. Francisco Brito as Carlo Scavronski, and Ser Cuccupis as Marco Filippo Romano (November 15 and 23, December 1).
Third title is one of Donizetti's most loved masterpieces, "Lucrezia Borgia" (November 22, 24 and 30). The performance is entrusted to the baton of Riccardo Frizza (Carla Delfrate will be on the podium on November 30th) who will conduct the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra. In the title role the soprano Carmela Remigio and, as Gennaro, the tenor Xabier Anduaga; then Marko Mimica will be Don Alfonso d'Este, Varduhi Abrahamyan will be Maffio Orsini. The new staging of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti directed by Andrea Bernard, the sets and costumes designed respectively by Alberto Beltrame and Elena Beccaro and lights by Marco Alba, is the result of a co-production with the Reggio Emilia Theaters Foundation, the Piacenza Theaters Foundation and Ravenna Foundation Events.
