2024-2025 OPERA AND BALLET SEASON
LA TRAVIATA by Giuseppe Verdi
Performances 8, 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17 November, 13 December in Udine, 19 December in Pordenone
Concertmaster and Conductor ENRICO CALESSO
Director ARNAUD BERNARD
Set designer ALESSANDRO CAMERA
Costume designer CARLA RICOTTI
Light designer EMANUELE AGLIATI
Assistant director YAMAL DAS IRMICH
Assistant set designer ANDREA GREGORI
Assistant costume designer MARGHERITA PLATÈ
NEW STAGE SET BY FONDAZIONE TEATRO LIRICO GIUSEPPE VERDI DI TRIESTE
Characters and performers
Violetta Valéry
MARIA GRAZIA SCHIAVO (8, 10, 15, 17/XI)
FRANCESCA SASSU (9, 16/XI)
Alfredo Germont
ANTONIO POLI (8, 10, 15, 17/XI)
KLODJAN KAÇANI (9, 16/XI)
Giorgio Germont
ROBERTO FRONTALI (8, 10, 15, 17/XI)
FEDERICO LONGHI (9, 16/XI)
Flora Bervoix ELEONORA VACCHI
Barone Douphol FRANCESCO VERNA
Marchese d’Obigny FRANCESCO AURIEMMA
Dr. Grenvil ANDREA PELLEGRINI
Gastone SAVERIO FIORE
Annina VERONICA PRANDO
Giuseppe GIANLUCA SORRENTINO
Flora’s servant GIUSEPPE OLIVERI
Commissioner DAMIANO LOCATELLI
Choir master PAOLO LONGO
ORCHESTRA, CHOIR AND TECHNICIANS BY FONDAZIONE TEATRO LIRICO GIUSEPPE VERDI DI TRIESTE
The new production of Trieste’s Teatro Verdi La Traviata, directed by Arnaud Bernard and conducted by Enrico Calesso, opens the new opera season, full of supreme voices – starting with Maria Grazia Schiavo and Antonio Poli as Violetta and Alfredo – and new initiatives to bring the theatre closer to the public. Thus, the Theatre becomes a real social hub in Trieste, and a point of reference for Made in Italy wedged between German-speaking territories and the Balkans.
The season opens on 8 November with the most popular and cinematic of Verdi’s titles, La Traviata, in the new production – especially for the Verdi – by French director Arnaud Bernard, known for his reinterpretations, intriguing yet never straying from impeccable classicism. On the podium is Designated Permanent Music Director Enrico Calesso, who conducted La Traviata for the first time in 2018, at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and has since made it one of his signature pieces on the many stages in Europe where he regularly conducts. The cast is led by Neapolitan soprano Maria Grazia Schiavo as Violetta, an experienced artist and a voice praised by conductors such as Muti and Dantone, and an eminent presence on the most prestigious international stages, from Salzburg to La Scala. Beside her is Antonio Poli as young Alfredo. Poli is among the most esteemed tenors of the new generation, an early discovery by Riccardo Muti and fresh from his personal success in the new La Vestale marking the 250th anniversary of Spontini’s birth.
Arnaud Bernard’s Traviata was the result of months of work in Trieste’s artisan workshops, which were involved in no less than five productions this year, and will surround Violetta with an atmosphere of elegant sophistication. The audience will find clear references to the festive post-war rebirth in Christian Dior’s sumptuous 1950s collections, a reaction of the female world to the harsh constraints of World War II, and the perfect aesthetic epitome of Trieste’s celebrations for the anniversary of the city’s return to Italy in 1954. After the success of the triptych dedicated to Auber’s, Massenet’s and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at the Regio di Torino, Bernard comes to Trieste with a highly sophisticated directorial and aesthetic approach, perfectly matching the atmosphere of the libretto, even in its time transposition. As at the Teatro Regio di Torino, the creative team includes Alessandro Camera as set designer (with Mariani at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino) and Carla Ricotti as costume designer.
The Verdi orchestra, in the midst of a very successful symphonic season (celebrated both by the public and the critics) will be directed by Enrico Calesso. The latter’s comment on the new Traviata: “I am very pleased to open the opera season of the Teatro Lirico Verdi with La Traviata, the first opera I studied as a teenager. This is an absolute masterpiece of extreme interpretive difficulty: the extraordinary power of psychological introspection demands not only rigorous attention to the score, but also a careful investigation of all melodic and thematic developments, which Verdi unravels through a powerful system of deliberate tonal choices aimed at describing each situation in a profound and peculiar way.”
And while the artistic work is in full swing, the Teatro Verdi is becoming more and more welcoming and multifunctional, with a view to meeting all the needs of the local and international audience who regularly attend its performances. Starting from Tuesday 5 November, a new service will be activated:
Il Teatro Verdi ti porta a teatro (The Verdi takes you to the theatre): at the box office, subscribers can book a single or shared cab service from their home to the theatre and back at the end of performances, with fixed fares for different areas of the city and neighbouring municipalities, to be paid directly to the driver on the day of the chosen performance. This service is available subject to availability, and it must be booked at least 24 hours before the service. Further information and rates will be available at the box office and on the Theatre’s website.
In addition, from 19 November three new led wall screens will replace the traditional printed season playbill on the theatre façade. Thus, photos and videos can create an immediate dialogue between the passers-by and the Theatre, with all the beauty it creates, performance after performance, and help the audience choose through direct experience of the shows.
Subscription and ticket prices are unchanged from last season. Special discounts for young people under 34 are also confirmed, with especially favourable prices for subscriptions and single tickets.