2024-2025 OPERA AND BALLET SEASON
DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL
(The Abduction from the Seraglio)
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Music pub.: Alkor/Baerenreiter, Kassel
Representative for Italy: Casa Musicale Sonzogno di Piero Ostali, Milan
Concertmaster and Conductor BEATRICE VENEZI
Director, set and costume designer IVAN STEFANUTTI
Light designer EMANUELE AGLIATI
Assistant director FILIPPO TADOLINI
Choir master PAOLO LONGO
NEW PRODUCTION BY FONDAZIONE TEATRO LIRICO GIUSEPPE VERDI DI TRIESTE
Characters and performers
Konstanze
ANNA AGLATOVA (17, 19, 24, 26/I)
YERANG PARK (18, 25/I)
Belmonte
RUZIL GATIN (17, 19, 24, 26/I)
PIERLUIGI D’ALOIA (18, 25/I)
Osmin
ANDREA SILVESTRELLI (17, 19, 24, 26/I)
LUCA DALL’AMICO (18, 25/I)
Selim GIULIO CANCELLI
Blonde
MARIA SARDARYAN (17, 19, 24, 26/I)
LIUDMILA LOKAICHUK (18, 25/I)
Pedrillo
MARCELLO NARDIS (17, 19, 24, 26/I)
FRANCESCO NAPOLEONI (18, 25/I)
ORCHESTRA, CHOIR AND TECHNICIANS BY FONDAZIONE TEATRO LIRICO GIUSEPPE VERDI DI TRIESTE
It is with a set design plunging the stage into the sea, the backstage ideally open towards the horizon, that young Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail arrives in Trieste. The Teatro Verdi thus welcomes the new production staged by director Ivan Stefanutti and conducted by Beatrice Venezi, following her recent success with the television broadcasting event on Rai3 celebrating the genius of Giacomo Puccini. The first performance of the year sees a young and talented cast and important novelties for the audience of Friuli Venezia Giulia’s main theatre – specifically the opening of the new Victor de Sabata Lounge, a sophisticated venue for a gourmet interval with local delicacies at each opera premiere starting from 17 January.
A director, set and costume designer artistically trained at the unconventional school of Sylvano Bussotti, Ivan Stefanutti has taken over this new production of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail(The Abduction from the Seraglio), which was entirely realised in the workshops of Teatro Verdi. The result is an unusual and sophisticated setting: an eighteenth-century turquerie surrounded by the deep blue sea. Because, as Stefanutti says “The protagonists of this story have the sea in their destiny, and some of them have thoughts as deep as the oceans. Not all of them, though. Others sail on the surface, unaware of what lies beneath them.” And again: “This modern story does not seem to take place on land. Maybe we are even under the sea. Is this Atlantis?”. Surely it may not look like Atlantis, but the set design is very much reminiscent of the city hosting the performance. When the curtain opens, the backstage seems to become crystal, and the audience feels surrounded by the blue of Trieste and by the city’s elegant combination of classical and oriental architecture and culture. Pearls are the leitmotif embellishing the setting, with both a decorative and metaphorical function. It is a highly aesthetic performance, with dialogues in Italian to enable the audience to better appreciate the text and the skilful dramaturgy designed by the young Mozart himself. The sung parts will be in German, underlining the work’s historical value as National-Singspiel: the new Viennese genre promoted by Emperor Joseph II and long pondered by Mozart.
On the podium, again with a Mozart repertoire, is Beatrice Venezi, following the success of her educational project on Puccini for Rai3 and recently appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the Permanent Orchestra of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
The cast on stage is international, experienced in these roles and mostly young, like the starring quartet, with Anna Aglatova (from Russia) and Yerang Park (from South Korea) as Costanze, and Ruzil Gatin (also from Russia) and Pierluigi D’Aloia (from Apulia) as Belmonte – the latter was recently applauded at La Scala for his performance as Fadinard in Nino Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze (“The Florentine Straw Hat”). Equally remarkable are Andrea Silvestrelli and Luca Dall’Amico as Osmin with their new and fresh voices, a real trove in Italy, whose difficult task is to give an almost prose-like depth to the long spoken dialogues and clarity to the sung parts.
The premiere of Die Entführung aus dem Serail will also bring with it an intriguing treat for the Verdi’s loyal audience with the opening of the new Victor de Sabata Lounge. The elegant neoclassical setting of the Victor de Sabata Ridotto will indeed become a sophisticated venue (only during premiere intervals at this experimental stage) for a gourmet interval with a light tasting menu of superb local wine and food delicacies, for a tranquil break adding to the evening’s beauty and pleasantness. The service (€15.00 per person) can be booked in advance at the box office subject to availability. The Victor de Sabata Lounge gives new life and purpose to the Ridotto – one of the city’s architectural treasures, built and decorated between 1801 and 1810, when the myth of Trieste’s elegance originated amidst Hapsburg, French and Russian influences.
A Friday 17 January 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
C Saturday, 18 January 2025 at 7:00 p.m.
D Sunday, 19 January 2025 at 4:00 p.m.
B Friday, 24 January 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
S Saturday, 25 January 2025 at 4:00 p.m.
E Sunday, 26 January 2025 at 4:00 p.m.