Proudly unwilling to let the gathering financial storm that will hit the world of heavily-subsidized Italian opera ruin their plans, Teatro Comunale di Bologna simply rawks. It's premiere night time this coming Thursday at Teatro Comunale under the baton of the new "direttore principale", 29-year-old Michele Mariotti: it's opening night time for Pier’Alli's new staging of I Puritani that will see, as Arturo Talbo -- a role written for Giovan Battista Rubini, by0tches! -- el mejor tenor ligero del mundo, aka Juan Diego Florez, aka the lamby prince of opera.
Ildebrando D’Arcangelo aka Our Dear Brandolino will be Sir Giorgio, Netrebko wannabe Nino Machaidze -- who does not deserve a nickname yet -- will be Elvira.
For you armchair musicologists out there, Mariotti has decided to use the Della Seta edition of the score, that reinstates three passages that had been later cut -- Bellini died shortly after the premiere -- because the constant requests for encores slowed down the action too much. Della Seta reinstates a Terzetto (Act I, scene X) for Arturo, Enrichetta & Riccardo called "Se il destino a te m’invola"; a part of the Elvira-Arturo duet (Act III, scene II) from "Ah! Perdona … ell’era misera" and the cabaletta a due for Elvira and Arturo (Act III, scene III) in the Finale ultimo, "Ah! sento, o mio bell’angelo".
Besides that, there's also a bunch of high notes. And JDF. And Brandolino.
