Franco Zeffirelli (he's set to direct Tosca) and Riccardo Muti (he'll conduct Otello) and Daniela Dessì & Fabio Armiliato (La Fanciulla del West) are among the marquee names of the 2008 stagione at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Giorgio De Chirico, from the great artist studio in the sky, will be the set designer for a ballet marathon that sounds extremely cool. And then a rare Mascagni, a Dvorak, and more.
GM Francesco Ernani, at the Campidoglio, has introduced to the press this morning the very interesting program: Zeffirelli's spanking new Tosca premieres on January 14, Fiorenza Cedolins and Renato Bruson in the cast; Puccini will also be honored (2008 is the 150th anniversary of the maestro's birth) with La fanciulla del West (premieres on April 8), with the wonderful lovebirds Daniela Dessì (as Minnie) and Fabio Armiliato (as, huh, Dick). Dessì, obviously THE Puccini soprano of this day and age, is a wonderful gift to Puccini fans for il maestro's birthday party in Rome (if only la Scala had cast her and Armiliato in their Andrea Chenier next season, they'd have a great party, too).
Rome's 2008 cartellone has 16 operas and 23 ballets, including the summer season at Terme di Caracalla. The ballet season will be inaugurated on January 30 with a very interesting Giorgio De Chirico extravaganza: GDC's sets will be used for La giara by Alfredo Casella, Stravinsky's Apollon Musagete, Le Bal by Vittorio Rieti, Bacchus et Ariane by Albert Roussel -- everything will be reproduced based on the original designs and the original materials.
In February, Rusalka -- some Antonin Dvorak to soothe our ears (Gunter Neohold conductor, Ludek Gplat direktor, Angelas Blanca Gulin as the nymphtastic Rusalka)
October 7, 2008, is the day of a really delicious forgotten Mascagni (OC is a fangirl and if you aren't, boo): Amica, a work that had its premiere in Rome in 1907 (and here, bafflingly, we have to announce the debut at Opera di Roma for Andrea Bocelli, in Mascagni's gem -- wtf indeed). The off-tha-hooc coolness of Oscar couple Ezio Frigerio - Franca Squarciapino will do sets and costumes for Rosenkavalier; and Riccardo Muti, deliciously, in a meanie mean p1mpslap to la Scala, his old workplace, has moved the premiere of his Rome Otello up to December 6, 2008; stealing the Scala thunder, because the Milanese opera house the following day will have its La Prima with Don Carlo, conducted by Daniele Gatti, Stéphane Braunschweig director.
And then the obvious question is, what would you rather see, Muti's Otello (with a supersecret -- OC knows he's a Eastern European young man with a very secksy demeanor -- new singer personally picked by Riccardo Muti) or Gatti's Don Carlos? Excitement in Rome or blak ties and gloom in Milan?