Opera Chic

Damiano Michieletto Crosses Over to the Dark Side with Puccini's Trittico

"Murder, suicide and death tinged with black comedy," says Italian opera director Damiano Michieletto about the themes of Il tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, respectively. "I wanted to explore that dark side, to bring out the violence and cynicism of the human psyche."

On October 10, Michieletto unveils his new Puccini Trittico for Theater an der Wein in stark realism. Tabarro's set in an industrial harbor space, described as a world of pain where workers, oppressed like slaves, search for escape through ~sexual healing~. Suor Angelica's locked in a prison cell, incarcerated against her will, to serve out a sentence. Gianni Schicchi's players fight over the inheritance in "ferocious" and "deceitful" shades. Michieletto likes his slasher flix! 

The cast includes Patricia Racette (as Giorgetta and Suor Angelica) and Roberto Frontali (as Michele and Gianni Schicchi).

This past summer, Michieletto's Christmas-themed la Bohème set in a mall was a hit at the Salzburg Festival. 

Working Class Hero: Michieletto's Salzburg Success

Damiano Michieletto's just-unwrapped, modern La bohème production for Salzburg, which opened a few days ago starring Trebs in the title role, won over the audience and critics alike -- twelve minutes of applause for the 37-year-old Venetian's "dark" interpretation, set in a mall, Mimi as a lost soul with the young bohemian posse on self-destruct mode.

Michieletto tells Corriere della Sera that he started working in opera out of boredom. His blue collar parents -- a soccer mom and a working-class dad -- never took him to the opera. A nice comeback for a festival that hasn't put into scene an Italian director in 13 years. The man of the hour, tower of power. 

He laments that Italian directors aren't noted abroad. For his Bohème, he sought a balance between telling the story without boredom and banishing cliche.

L'elisir d'amore on the Beach, Michieletto for Palermo

Tomorrow night opens Damiano Michieletto's new production of L'elisir at Palermo's Teatro Massimo, co-signed by Palau de les Arts Valencia (where it had a successful premiere in 2011) and Teatro Real Madrid. The young Italian opera director set the love story on the beach, which he cited as a place evocative of a rustic rhetoric and retro flavor where relationships can be explosive.

It's a day at the beach for Nemorino, a lifeguard who cleans up after guests, inflates air mattresses for kids and rearranges beach chairs. Adina is the bathing-suited beach belle, owner of a kiosk and Giannetta works there, too. Belcore's a sailor and Dulcamara's a beach vendor of wrinkle-free tanning lotion and energy drinks. 

Desirée Rancatore is Adina, Celso Albelo is Nemorino, Mario Cassi is Belcore, Paolo Bordogna is Dulcarmara and Elena Borin is Giannetta. On the podium is Paolo Arrivabeni.

Damiano Michieletto's Poliuto Teaser at Opernhaus Zürich

Gaetano Donizetti’s story of Christian martyrs, Poliuto, opens on Sunday at the Zurich Opera House with Damiano Michieletto's new production. The Venice-born, 37-year-old opera director, who spoke to us in February for OC's weekly column on Grazia.it, said that his conception was an atmospheric industry where men live underground like mice and religion's viewed as something that can give valor to human life against mass consumption. Whoaaa high concept. Conducted by Nello Santi, Massimiliano Pisapia sings the title role.

This summer, Michieletto will premiere an already-sold-out La Boheme (Netrebko as Mimì, natch) at the Salzburger Festspiele, conducted by Daniele Gatti in August. He's the first Italian opera director since Strehler and Ronconi to bring a new opera to the Austrian festival and already revealed that it'll be a carefree version.

Damiano Michieletto's Così fan tutte for Venice

Fiordiligi and Dorabella enter the lobby of a design hotel after a day of high-end shopping. Guglielmo and Ferrando are in jeans and leather jackets. So begins young Italian opera director Damiano Michieletto's vision for Mozart's Così fan tutte at Venice's Teatro la Fenice, which opened on February 16.

Set in a luxury design hotel modeled from the 70s, Corriere della Sera affectionaltly called it kitschy. We guess that Michieletto's noticed in the past couple years, Milan's elegant old guard --  like the Principe di Savoia and the Grand Hotel et de Milan -- has been crowded by the expanding empires of Italian designers who've opened design hotels: Armani, Bulgari & Moschino.

Corriere praised an "impeccable cast" for opening night: Antonello Manacorda on the podium, Maria Bengtsson as Fiordiligi, Josè Maria Lo Monaco as Dorabella, Markus Werba as Guglielmo, Marlin Miller as Ferrando, Caterina Di Tonno as Despina and Andrea Concetti as Don Alfonso.

UPDATE

Apparently this happens during the opera. Yes, that's what you think it is.

Opera Chic and Grazia.it: Damiano Michieletto

For OC's latest Stasera Esco on Grazia.it, she spoke with young Venetian opera director, Damiano Michieletto. He's in Venice preparing for a La Fenice Così fan tutte that opens on February 16.

Read the interview here!