News

Local premiere  for Salvatore Sciarrino in Baku (Azerbaijan) on April 16. Introduzione all’oscuro for 12 instruments, will be presented at the Staatsfilharmonie  by the Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble under the baton of Reinbert de Leeuw.

On 14 April the Teatro Giacosa in Ivrea will host the world premiere in scenic form of Elena, a tragic opera drawn from the Greek myth by Maddalena Mazzocut-Mis and with music by Azio Corghi. The composer has given voice to the character of Hecuba by way of a mixed choir of 12 voices. The actresses Elena Russo Arman (in the role of Helen) and Sara Urban (Medea) are accompanied by the vocal ensemble Calycanthus under the direction of Pietro Ferrario. The stage direction is by Alessia Gennari. The performance in Ivrea is the fruit of an intense, week-long advanced study program-workshop at the Accademia Perosi in Biella aimed at producing and launching the opera. The participants include the Departments of Philosophy and the Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the Università degli studi in Milan and the Università degli studi in Genoa.

Bringing children closer to contemporary music by speaking to them in their own language, the language of games and fairy tales, which, through the imagination, bring the fantastic to life: this is the aim of the new Silvia Colasanti’s opera. Chicino e Cicotta  has as its protagonists a Young Lad and his rooster Chicano, a stand-offish Princess together with her hen Cicotta and a Wizard who works in the background. The Princess accepts the company of the Young Lad on the condition that he keeps his distance from her and the perch where the rooster and the hen – with the help of, respectively, an oboe and a violin - converse with each other.
Despite the many obstacles that the Wizard-narrator concocts to liven up the game, the finale leaves the audience with a smile on its face.
Composed on a libretto by Roberto Piumini, the opera will be premiered on April 13 at the Auditorium in Milan with the Orchestra Verdi under the direction of Francesco Bossaglia.

Silvia Colasanti has been appointed a Knight of the Italian Republic by the President Giorgio Napolitano.

The Italian premiere of Zazie, an opera written by Matteo Franceschini (on a libretto by Michel Beretti) for young audiences, is scheduled for April 11 in Lecce (additional performance on April 12), at the Cantieri Koreja Theatre. Drawn from Raymond Quenau’s 1959 novel of the same name, Zazie dans le métro , it was commissioned by the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France when Matteo was resident composer with the orchestra. The world premiere took place at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2012.
The Italian revival of the opera, which has been enthusiastically promoted by Ivan Fedele, artistic director of the Lecce Province Tito Schipa Orchestra, features the same vocal interpreters as the Paris production (Sevan Manoukian, soprano – Jean-Baptiste Dumora, baritone – Guillaume Marquet, actor). The musical direction of the orchestra has been entrusted to Pasquale Corrado.

April, month of the 60th anniversary of Giorgio Battistelli, sees numerous performances of his  work.  On April 9 the Zagreb Biennale hosts a performance of The Embalmer, a music theatre work featuring the monologue of Miscin, the man who was responsible for presenting Lenin's embalmed body for viewing by thousands of visitors, while at the time his own life falling apart. The Icarus Ensemble will be conducted by Marco Angius, and with Riccardo Massai as Miscin.
The Italian premiere of Pacha Mama will take place at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona (April 26, 27) with the Arena Orchestra, Pablo Mielgo conducting. Pacha Mama "is an expression in the native South American language Quechua that means Mother Earth and refers to the Inca divinity that symbolises agriculture and fertility" explains Battistelli, in discussing this one-act orchestral piece that celebrates the union between spirit and matter.
Finally, on May 3 and 4 at the Teatro Studio in the Parco della Musica in Rome, Battistelli will conduct his famous Experimentum mundi, opera di musica immaginistica for 16 craftsmen, female choir, reciting voice and percussion which, since its premiere in 1981, has been performed over 250 times around the globe. For this production, the actor-narrator will for the first time be Beppe Servillo together with Nicola Raffone on percussion.

On March 30 at the Casa da Música in Oporto, Giorgio Battistelli will present the Portuguese premiere of his  famous Experimentum mundi, opera di musica immaginistica for 16 craftsmen, female choir, reciting voice and percussion. Since its premiere in 1981, the work has been performed over 250 times around the globe.
Portuguese performers,craftmen included, will be conducted by the composer.

An Alice discredited, derided and ill-treated by a world that has got very little to do with wonders; an Alice who personifies the vision of the artist in a reality that condemns her to silence and to oblivion, just as the contemporary world attempts to do with art. These are the salient traits of the three-act opera Alice, which Giampaolo Testoni composed in 1993 and from which, in 1995, he drew three symphonic fantasies for large orchestra.
The world premiere of the Terza Fantasia will be performed in Ljubljana on March 28 (with additional performance on March 29) by the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of  Daniele Callegari.

After performances last October at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice (open to local schools and the general public) Paolo Furlani’s chamber opera for young people Il vestito nuovo dell’imperatore returns to the stage (in the same production as in Venice) in Pordenone on 25 March (Auditorium Concordia) and in Vittorio Veneto (Teatro Da Ponte) on 4 April. In both theatres performances are being scheduled for schools and the general public.
The opera on a libretto by Gianni Rodari was written on commission from the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.

On  March 23, the Belgian premiere of Marco Stroppa’s Ossia: seven strophes for a literary
Drone, for violin, cello and piano, will be performed by the soloists of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Brussels. The work will took place at the Conservatoire Royal.

Country premieres for Mauro Lanza on March 21 in Stockholm. The KammarensembleN, under the baton of Steffan Larson, will perform Aschenblume for nine performers, La bataille de Caresme et de Charnage for cello and piano, Predellino for piano and The skin of the onion for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussions. The concert will take place at the Italian Cultural Institute as part of the series ‘Maestri Italiani’.     

The German premiere of Brian Ferneyhough's Firecycle beta for piano duo and orchestra will be performed on March 21 in Berlin (Konzerthaus) by the piano duo GrauSchumacher and the Konzerthausorchester. The five conductors required by the work are Arturo Tamayo (head conductor), Cecilia Castagneto, Armando Merino, Elena Schwarz and Fabio Sperandio.

Numerous additional performances of the opera QUARTETT and many other exciting projects for Luca Francesconi in 2013 and upcoming years.
After the great acclaim accorded by critics and audiences alike to QUARTETT on the occasion of its world premiere, in April 2011 at the Teatro alla Scala, and after its revival last year at the Wiener Festwochen, a growing number of opera houses and festivals are expressing lively interest in this opera. This year alone the work will be performed five times: on 19 March at the Cité de la Musique in Paris (in concert form); on 1 June at the Holland Festival; on 24 September in Oporto, as part of the Casa da Musica’s 2012/13 season; on 28 September at the Strasbourg Music Festival; and on 13 November at the Opéra de Lille. In 2014, moreover, the Royal Opera House will stage a new production of QUARTETT, which will later go on to New York. Further performances are being scheduled for 2015 and 2016.
2013 is also full of appointments with Luca Francesconi’s symphonic music. As composer in residence at the Casa da Musica in Oporto, Francesconi will play a leading role in this prestigious company’s upcoming music season dedicated to Italy. In addition to the Portuguese premiere of QUARTETT and the world premiere of the composer’s Piano Concerto, Oporto will also host the national premieres of Inquieta limina – Homage to Berio for ensemble with accordion, Islands for piano and ensemble, Hard Pace for trumpet and orchestra, Etymo for soprano, ensemble and electronics and Cobalt and Scarlet for orchestra.
2014 too is promising a rich offering of symphonic music by Francesconi. Most importantly, some breaking news on two new works: the first is a concerto for violin and orchestra written for the brilliant soloist Leila Josefowics (commissioned by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai and the BBC Symphony Orchestra), the world premiere of which will be performed in February by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Susanna Mallki (this will be followed by national premieres in Turin, in spring, and in London, in summer); the second is a symphonic piece, commissioned by Riccardo Chailly for the Orchestra Sinfonica of the Teatro alla Scala; the world premiere of this work will be performed on 5 May 2014.

On March 13 in Reykjavik, Domenico Codispoti will perform for the first time in Iceland  Francesco Antonioni’s piano pieces, Preludi diatonici. The composition will be performed at the Harpa, Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre.

Swiss premiere of Islands for piano and ensemble by Luca Francesconi. The work will be performed on March 9 in Zurich, at the Tonhalle, Kleiner Saal, by the Remix Porto Ensemble, conductor Enno Poppe, piano Jonathan Ayerts.  The same concert will have its Portuguese premiere on March 12 in Oporto at the Casa da Música, Suggia Hall.

Country premiere for Mauro Lanza in Huddersfield. The piece La bataille de caresme et de charnage version for cello and electonics will be performed on March 4th  by Séverine Ballon at the University of Huddersfield.
http://www.hud.ac.uk/concerts/march2013/severineballon-cello/

For the first time in the USA, Un giorno di regno, Giuseppe Verdi’s second opera, on a libretto by Felice Romani, and drawn from Alexandre Vincent Pineu-Dival’s French farce Le faux Stanislas, will be performed at the Sarasota Opera House on 2 March 2013 (also 5, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 24 March), under the direction of Victor deRenzi. The critical edition realised by Francesco Izzo is published by Casa Ricordi and the University of Chicago Press.
Un giorno di regno tells the story of Stanislaus, the king of Poland, who, to confuse and defeat his enemies, asks Belfiore, an unknown knight, to impersonate him for a day. Happy to oblige, Belfiore enables the true monarch to do battle in disguise, at the same time taking advantage of the situation to weave a network of amorous intrigues worthy of a king.
The production is directed by Martha Collins, with scenery  by Jeffrey Dean and the costumes by Howard Tsvi Kaplan.

The Slovenian premiere of   Autoritratto nella notte by Salvatore Sciarrino will be performed in Ljubljana, Cankarjev Dom, Gallus Hall, on  February 28 (additional performance on March 1). The Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the composition under the direction of David Greilsammer.

World premiere of Samuel Sené’s musical adaptation of Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman on 25 February at the Teatro Sociale in Como (additional performances up to 5 March).  Winner of the Wagner200 competition, the work has been promoted by As.Li.Co. (Associazione Lirico e Concertistica Italiana) in the context of the project Opera Domani.
Launched in 1997 in collaboration with the Lombardy Regional Government, Opera Domani (which forms part of the activities of R.E.S.E.O. - Rèseau Europèen des Services èducatifs des maisons d'Opèra) is directed at primary and secondary school teachers with a view to familiarising children and adolescents with opera by way of producing reduced versions of famous operas for young audiences. This objective has been constantly and successfully pursued by As.Li.Co. for more than 60 years.
Sené’s adaptation of Wagner’s opera will be performed by Orchestra 1813, an orchestra that was founded in 2006 and is composed of young musicians from all over the world, a testimony to how important and worthwhile it is to entrust to young musicians the task of spreading a love of music. Opera Domani’s 2013 project is a co-production by As.Li.Co., Theater Magdeburg  (Germany) and Opera de Rouen Haute-Normandie (France). A total of 120 performances have been scheduled for 2013 in various Italian cities and in Magdeburg (October) and for 2014 in Rouen (January).

Salvatore Sciarrino will spend a three-week residency (February 18-March 2, and March 25-31, 2013) in Boston University Center for New Music. This residency will include multiple Composer’s Forum Lectures, pedagogical events for students, and an afternoon reading/recording session in the CFA Concert hall and performances of a few works of him.

The disturbing figure of a woman with long eyelashes dominates the scene; she is wrapped up in a garment made of newspapers and her fulsome mane of blonde hair falls down over an abnormally tall body. She is surrounded by a piano, an accordion and two groups of percussion instruments.
A man (the Trieste painter Vito von Thümmel), also of abnormal stature, descends a staircase in the manner of a Noh theatre actor and approaches the woman hoping to make contact through the expressiveness of his voice; but the woman dozes off and draws the man into her sleep, destroying any hope of a relationship. The world premiere of this scene from Fabio Nieder’s theatre work Thümmel oder die Verlöschung des Wortes (Thümmel or the Demise of Words) will be performed by the Ensemble ur. werk on  February 17 in the Klecks Theater at the Hochschule für Theatre, Musik und Medien in Hanover.