Direction, Sets and Costumes by Facoltà di Design e Arti dell’Università IUAV di Venezia
Claron McFadden, Magnus Staveland, Jordi Domènech, Manuela Custer, Marina De Liso, Donatella Lombardi, Isabel Álvarez, Antonio Lozano, Gian Luca Zoccatelli, Filippo Morace, Maria Grazia Schiavo & Roberto Abbondan Orchestra Europa Galante, Conducted by Fabio Biondi & Directed by Carlo Majer Preceded by a solemn prologue in which Iride admonishes mortals that they should not offend the gods, the story of Cavalli’s
Didone comes to life thanks to numerous solo passages of highly varied character and structure, designed both for simple basso
continuo support and for a more complex instrumental accompaniment, for five real parts which enjoy some independent
moments and which create a diversion from the action or blend in with it in a wholly logical way, intensifying it in a studied,
evocative manner. The tragic story of the Carthaginian queen is thus unfolded with extreme attention in a framework that had
already been adopted by Monteverdi, of whom Cavalli is considered a worthy successor. In this case it is enlivened and, we
might say, given a more popular, direct appeal as it aims to communicate with a public that is gradually expanding. The composer
is sincere when he states: ”My spirit has always been far from the printing press: I have preferred to allow my weaknesses
to run where fortune takes them with the pen rather than the press.” He identifies with the torment of Didone and with the
”force of nature” (Prunières) that is his and the brilliance of some of his solutions, he creates one of the most tragic, tormented
operas of the entire seventeenth century. |
