Festival della Valle d’Itria 2021 with Luisi, Oropesa, Calleja…

Festival della Valle d’Itria: for the 47th edition the great voices of opera in Martina Franca from July 17 to August 5. Festival music director Fabio Luisi will be on the podium for the opening ceremony.

Among the stars of the event will be Teresa Iervolino, Angela Meade, Lisette Oropesa, Raffaele Pe, Marianna Pizzolato, Carmela Remigio, Federico Maria Sardelli, Markus Werba, and Joseph Calleja

Fiat lux is the title of the 47th edition of the Festival della Valle d’Itria, to be held from 17 July to 5 August 2021 in Martina Franca. [PROGRAMME]

In challenging circumstances, the Festival at Martina Franca has put together a programme of 20 evenings of music while complying with safety measures. Rare opera titles, oratorios, recitals and symphony concerts are present in a lineup devised by artistic director Alberto Triola and music director Fabio Luisi.

From the Neapolitan Baroque of Alessandro Scarlatti and Nicola Porpora – which caught on Europe-wide also thanks to the vocal stardom of Farinelli and his rivals – to the Viennese Classicism of Haydn and then on to Schubert, are open to a reading with links and references to the current condition in which man is struggling. Triola says,

“Fiat lux” is that new beginning, given by the urgent need for an authentic re-creation of the world, which presupposes the failure, the shipwreck and consequently the abandonment of what we have known until now, which suddenly reveals itself to be irremediably and surprisingly old, and which also makes us discover ourselves tragically inadequate.

For the first time, Fabio Luisi will be on the podium for the opening night, the 47^th edition, on the 17 July 2021 in the Palazzo Ducale, with Haydn’s Die Schöpfung (1798), in an Italian version written for the Festival in 1988 (when Fabio Luisi also conducted). It will be directed by Fabio Ceresa with sets by Tiziano Santi with the Fondazione Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari, and its Orchestra.

The second title on the bill is La Griselda, opera seria in three acts by Alessandro Scarlatti with a libretto by Apostolo Zeno (from the last tale in Boccaccio’s Decameron), three hundred years from the 1721 Rome debut at the Teatro Capranica with a cast of celebrated castratos such as Antonio Bernacchi, Giacinto Fontana known as “Il farfallino”, and Giovanni Carestini. The director of this new staging is Rosetta Cucchi; sets are by Santi,and the conductor is George Petrou, a specialist of the Baroque repertoire. Carmela Remigio sings the title role.

Two gems of the Baroque and Classical repertoire, presented in a staged form are the serenata for 6 voices L’Angelica by Neapolitan Nicola Porpora, with words by Metastasio from the Orlando Furioso (1720), and Franz Schubert‘s Winterreise (1827) with Markus Werba.

Recitals and concerts include performances by Lisette Oropesa, Vivica Genaux, Julie Fuchs, and Angela Meade.

www.festivaldellavalleditria.it

Fabio Luisi answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Conductors’ Edition

Q&A When did you start playing an instrument? When I was three and a half years old. Why did you start playing? My parents sent me to piano lessons, for me it was more like a game. Which musicians inspired you most when you were young? My teacher, Lili Chiesa, who was violinist in the […]

Lisette Oropesa answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition

Q&A When did you start singing? We have a recording of me when I was three singing La via dolorosa, complete with background track. So it’s safe to say, I think, since I was a toddler. Why did you start singing? My whole family sings, and my mother in particular is very gifted. So it […]

XLVII ITRIA VALLEY FESTIVAL

17 July – 5 August 2021

Fiat lux

Martina Franca, Palazzo Ducale
17, 23 and 31 July 2021

Franz Joseph Haydn
THE CREATION
Italian version by Dario Del Corno revised by Filippo Del Corno
Staged performance

Uriele Vassily Solodkyy
Rafael Alessio Arduini
Adam Jan Antem
Eva Sabrina Sanza

Conductor Fabio Luisi
Director Fabio Ceresa
Sets Tiziano Santi
Costumes Gianluca Falaschi, Gianmaria Sposito
Lighting Pasquale Mari

Fattoria Vittadini
Ghislieri Chorus
Orchestra del Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari

Martina Franca, Palazzo Ducale
24, 29 July and 1 August 2021

Alessandro Scarlatti
GRISELDA
Drama for music in three acts by Apostolo Zeno
On the 300th anniversary of the first performance

Gualtiero Raffaele Pe
Griselda Carmela Remigio
Ottone Francesca Ascioti
Costanza Mariam Battistelli
Corrado Krystian Adam
Roberto Giuseppina Bridelli

Conductor Georg Petrou
Director Rosetta Cucchi
Sets Tiziano Santi
Costumes Claudia Pernigotti
Lighting Pasquale Mari

Ghislieri Chorus
La Lira di Orfeo

Martina Franca, Palazzo Ducale
30 July and 3 August 2021

Nicola Porpora
L’ANGELICA
Serenata for six voices and instruments based on a text by Pietro Metastasio

Orlando Teresa Iervolino
Angelica Francesca Aspromonte
Licori Gaia Petrone
Titiro Sergio Foresti
Tirsi Barbara Massaro

Director Federico Maria Sardelli
Director, scenes and costumes Gianluca Falaschi

La Lira di Orfeo
Co-production with Staatstheater Mainz

Martina Franca, Palazzo Ducale
4 August 2021

Franz Schubert
WINTERREISE
staged performance

Markus Werba baritone
Michele Gamba piano

Director, sets and costumes Libero Stelluti

Martina Franca, Cloister of San Domenico
21, 22 July 2021

Paulin Viardot Garcia
LE DERNIER SORCIER
Chamber opera in two acts with a libretto by Iván Tourgueniev
Artists of the Rodolfo Celletti Belcanto Academy
on the bicentenary of the birth of Pauline Viardot Garcia

Krakamiche William Hernandez
Stella Laura Cruz Bautista
Perlimpimpin Manuel Rodriguez
Lelio Jessica Poppe
La Reine Nikoleta Kapetanidou

Director Davide Garattini Raimondi
Sets Paolo Vitale
Costumes Giada Masi
Co-production with Littleopera Festival of Zamora

IL CANTO DEGLI ULIVI

20 July 2021
Julie Fuchs soprano
Carmen Santoro piano

25 July 2021
Vivica Genaux mezzo-soprano
Aeneas Barock Orchestra

27 July 2021
Marianna Pizzolato mezzo-soprano
Ettore Papadia piano

28 July 2021
Veronica Simeoni mezzo-soprano
Vincenzo Rana piano

RECITAL

18 July 2021
Angela Meade soprano
Carmen Santoro piano

Martina Franca, Basilica of San Martino
26 July 2021

CONCERTO DELLO SPIRITO
Music by Porpora and Scarlatti
For soloists, two violins and basso continuo

Raffaele Pe countertenor
Giulio Prandi conductor

Ghislieri Chorus
La Lira d’Orfeo

Martina Franca, Cloister of San Domenico
19th July 2021

TWENTIETH CENTURY AND BEYOND
Music by Stravinsky, Milhaud and Bartòk

Duo Glomoglosova

Martina Franca, Palazzo Ducale
2 August 2021

BELCANTO CONCERT
Rodolfo Celletti Belcanto Prize 2021
to Richard Bonynge and Joan Sutherland (ad memoriam)

Lisette Oropesa soprano
Christopher Franklin conductor
Petruzzelli Theatre Orchestra

Martina Franca, Palazzo Ducale / Taranto, Aragonese Castle
5 August 2021

SYMPHONIC CONCERT
Piazzolla / Caruso
on the centenary of Astor Piazzolla’s birth and Enrico Caruso’s death

Joseph Calleja tenor
Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi bandoneon
Gianluca Marcianò conductor
Magna Grecia Orchestra

Gramilano Editor

Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.