The Italian Cultural Institute presents THE TEATRO MASSIMO 2009 SEASON Thursday 9 October 2008, 6,30pm Introduced by H.E. Giancarlo Aragona, Italian Ambassador Diego Cammarata, Mayor of Palermo Antonio Cognata, Superintendent Teatro Massimo Lorenzo Mariani, Artistic Director Teatro Massimo Followed by a concert by soprano Dimitra Theodossiou The Teatro Massimo 2009 season contains eleven productions: 9 operas and two ballets and witnesses as well the return of opera to the outdoor venue Teatro di Verdura. There will be a parallel season of symphonic music with eight concerts, among which will be an opera in concert form. This season is one of the most prolific in terms of production, reaching a level of almost one hundred performances, divided between operas, concerts, dance evenings and numerous special events intended for an audience of young people. Our program includes titles from the classical operatic repertoire as well as rarer pieces, one of which will be staged for the first time in Palermo. The inauguration will take place on the 23 rd of January with Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin (Jan. 24 - Feb. 1). This opera has not been performed in Palermo for over 40 years. Curiously enough Lohengrin, traditionally performed in Italian in our country, was performed in German for the first time in Palermo in 1939. It should be added that Palermo was a city which held a special interest for Richard Wagner: he spent long periods of time in our city and composed some of the most famous passages of Parsifal while living at Grand Hotel et des Palmes, just around the corner from the Teatro Massimo. This new edition, coproduced with the Teatro Carlo Felice of Genua will be staged by Hugo de Ana, one of the most important directors/designers working in opera today. This will be an “Italianate” production from the visual as well as the vocal point of view. All members of the cast have a background in the Italian repertoire and Hugo de Ana will give us a romantic interpretation of Wagner’s masterpiece. The conductor, Stefan Soltesz, is a renowned interpreter of the romantic German repertoire. The cast includes Zoran Todorovich, Martina Serafin, Marianne Cornetti, Sergei Leiferkus. Our second production will be Francesco Cilea’s most well known opera, Adriana Lecouvreur (Feb. 21 - March 1). This opera, vehicle in the past of famous soprano- prime donne – Magda Olivero, Raina Kabaivanska, Mirella Freni, Renata Scotto – will see the celebrated Italian soprano Daniela Dessì in the title role. Cilea, like Wagner, had a personal tie with Palermo, where he was director of the city conservatoire. Alongside Mrs. Dessì will be Fabio Armiliato in the role of Maurizio and Ildiko Komlosi as the princess of Bouillon. Donato Renzetti will conduct. One of our goals in recent years has been to build interest in twentieth century opera. Following the example of “Krol Roge”r (Szymanowski), “The Rake’s Progress” (Strawinsky), “From the House of the Dead” (Janáček), in 2009 we will present Erich Korngold’s masterpiece Die tote Stadt (April 16 - 23), in its first ever performance in Palermo. This production will be coproduced with Teatro La Fenice in what promises to be a stimulating and elegantly dreamy production by the Italian master Pierluigi Pizzi. Will Humburg, noted specialist in the twentieth century repertoire, will lead the orchestra while the cast is comprised of three of today’s most outstanding vocal artists:John Treleaven, Nicola Beller Carbone, Alexandru Agache. A cast of young fresh talented artists will spearhead our production of Così fan tutte (June 10 – 17). Maria Luigia Borsi and Laura Giordano, both seen in recent years at the Salzburg Festival will sing alongside other bright prospects such as Celso Abelo, Vincenzo Taormina and Elena Zhidkova. The production will be staged by Marco Gandini, former assistant of Franco Zeffirelli. The orchestra will be conducted by Hubert Soudant, one of today’s leading Mozart specialists. Following the success of our recent tour in Japan, the Teatro Massimo embarks on another adventure bringing two of its most prestigious productions to the renowned opera festival in Savonlinna, Finland (Jul. 28 - Aug.1). Here, the Teatro Massimo with its orchestra, chorus, technicians and cast of internationally acclaimed soloists will perform Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci and I Puritani . As in the case of our tour in Japan (“Vespri Siciliani” and “Cavalleria”), Teatro Massimo will bring two “Sicily related” masterpieces to Finland. One of Italy’s leading young conductors, Paolo Arrivabeni, will be on the podium for Cav/Pag while Friedrich Haider, noted belcanto specialist will conduct “I Puritani”. In Bellini’s masterpiece, the role of Elvira will be sung by Désirée Rancatore, a young and beautiful Sicilian soprano who has recently become an international star. After the Summer break, production resumes at the end of September with one of Puccini’s most loved operas, Madama Butterfly (Sept. 19 - 27). Renowned Chinese soprano Hui-He, recently acclaimed “Tosca” with Lorin Maazel in New York, will sing the lead role of Cio-cio-san. The production, greeted with considerable success at the New National Theatre of Tokyo in 2002, comes from the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. The production is by Lorenzo Mariani, director, and Maurizio Balò, designer, the same team responsible for the “Cav/Pag”. Conductor Gabriele Ferro. No Italian opera house can present a season without including works by Giuseppe Verdi. The Teatro Massimo 2009 programming concludes with the extremely popular Rigoletto (Nov. 22 - Dec. 2) and the less represented but no less admirable Simon Boccanegra (Oct. 23-29). The cast of “Rigoletto” is led by Leo Nucci, unrivalled star in this role . Roberto Aronica and Norah Amsellem complete the trio of protagonists. Keri-Lynn Wilson will conduct the historic production by Pierluigi Samaritani from the Festival Verdi in Parma.. No less impressive is the vocal line-up which highlights the “Simon Boccanegra”, immediately preceding “Rigoletto”. Alongside Roberto Frontali in the title role, the cast includes Amarilli Nizza as Amelia, and Walter Fraccaro. Ferruccio Furlanetto, triumphant protagonist of our internationally acclaimed “Mefistofele”, returns to Palermo to sing the role of Fiesco. Coproduced by the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, this Simon Boccanegra is staged by one of Italy’s most talented young directors, Giorgio Gallione. Philippe Auguin, well known to Covent Garden audiences, will conduct. In addition to operas, Teatro Massimo presents two great favourites of our dance audience, one in Springtime and one at the end of the year. As in past seasons one of the two productions is a new creation. This year, our ballet director, Luciano Cannito, will stage and choreograph a new version of Prokofiev’s classic Romeo and Juliet (May 15 - 21). In order to add a dash of contemporary flavour to this traditional love story we have asked the young fashion designer, Alessandra Facchinetti, to create the costumes. Eleonora Abbagnato, Palermo born étoile of the Opéra de Paris, will dance the role of Juliet. At Xmas time our dance production will shift repertoire to present the classical Russian masterpiece, The Sleeping Beauty ( Dec.17 - 23) . Irina Kolpakova, historic interpreter of this role, will faithfully reproduce the original version created for the Kirov in St. Petersburg in l890 by Marius Petipa. Our 2009 symphonic season offers a rich variety of programs ranging from classical repertoire to innovative crossover performances . The list of great conductors will include Riccardo Muti, Jurij Temirkanov , James Conlon and sir Jeffrey Tate ; the first two will come with visiting orchestras (Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and St. Petersburg Philharmonic), while the latter two will make their debut with the Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo. Three popular and prestigious artists whose backgrounds are in other genres will perform with our orchestras in programs which will certainly attract a new kind of audience to our theatre. Noa, Elio and Giovanni Allevi have a large following among the younger audiences in Italy today due to their ability to mix and mingle styles and sounds from different musical schools and experiences. Last but not least our concert season features the special guest appearance of Andrea Bocelli , who will sing, for the first time, the role of Faust ( Mar. 22 - 22) in a concert version of Gounod’s masterpiece. The evening will be conducted by a specialist of the French repertoire, Michel Plasson and the cast includes Roberto Scandiuzzi e Alexia Volgaridou. One of the proudest achievement of the Teatro Massimo in recent years has been the huge presence of youngsters in our theatre for a widespread variety of events and performances especially created for them. Once and for all let the numbers speak for themselves: over 40thousand boys and girls have crossed the threshold of the Teatro Massimo, setting foot inside it and discovering the beauty and magic of musical theatre. We consider it an historical result. And a very rewarding one, too. Among the myriad of activities addressed to this very special target – conferences, workshops, visits, rehearsals, participation – we have staged a trilogy of pieces devoted to the great opera composers. In 2007 we staged “W Mozart”, in 2008 “W Puccini” and next year, during performances of “Simon Boccanegra” and “Rigoletto”, we will debut with W Verdi . In addition to this we are working on a new version for young people of The Magic Flute . Contacts: www.teatromassimo.it Ticket office tel. +390916053580; fax +39 091322949; [email protected] Press office: tel. +390916053206; fax +390916053218; [email protected] Simona Barabesi and Floriana Tessitore. Marketing office: tel. +390916053268; fax +390916053342; [email protected] Giovanna Proto. Palermo, 9 ottobre 2008 .