World premiere at the Fenice in Venice Le baruffe by Giorgio Battistelli, a new opera taken by Goldoni

A new first for Giorgio Battistelli after the success of the recent Julius Caesar which inaugurated the season of the Rome Opera: debuts on February 22 (7 pm) to La Fenice Theater of Venice The quarrels, a new work freely inspired by the well-known comedy by Goldoni.

Commissioned by the Teatro La Fenice Foundation, The quarrels, proposed under the Opera and Ballet Season 2021/22, will be on stage with four performances until March 4th. Therebefore' of the February 22, 2022 (7 pm) will be broadcast in live broadcast on Rai Radio3 and in live streaming on corriere.it.

The opportunity for this new production came from the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the historic publishing house Marsilio, and from his long collaboration with the Venetian Theater. "It was natural to think of Goldoni to celebrate this anniversary, a way to remember the soul of the publishing house, Cesare De Michelis, who since 1993 has dedicated a national edition of the Opere to the work of the great playwright, with the aim of to bring to light its extraordinary topicality and modernity "explained Fortunato Ortombina, superintendent of the Fenice and Emanuela Bassetti, vice president of Marsilio.

And to the Venetian comedy by Carlo Goldoni, The Chiozzotte quarrels (1762) is freely inspired by the work that sees the composer's return to the Phoenix Giorgio Battistelli - Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Biennale Musica 2022 and already winner of the 2018 Abbiati Award for Richard III set up at the Fenice - and of the director Damiano Michieletto.

Together they have drawn a new libretto from Goldoni's masterpiece which features the fishermen and women of Chioggia with their lively dialect.

The staging de The quarrels makes use of the scenes of Paolo Fantin, of the costumes of Carla Teti, of the lighting design of Alessandro Carletti, with the choreographic movements curated by Thomas Wilhelm.

Enrico Calesso will be at the head of Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro La Fenice and a cast composed for the main roles by Alessandro Luongo in the part of padron Toni, Valeria Girardello in that of Madonna Pasqua, Francesca Sorteni (Lucietta), Enrico Casari (Titta-Nane), Marcello Nardis (Beppo), Rocco Cavalluzzi (padron Fortunato), Loriana Castellano (Madonna Libera), Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli (Orsetta), Silvia Frigato (Checca), Pietro Di Bianco (master Vicenzo), Leonardo Cortellazzi (Toffolo) e Federico Longhi (Isidore). In the supporting roles of the comandador and of Mantis shrimp, respectively Emanuele Pedrini is Safa Korkmaz. Choir Master Alfonso Caiani.

«I started from the idea of creating a fresco - underlined the composer Giorgio Battistelli - because I wanted to do something that concerned the territory in its collective aspect. Le baruffe chiozzotte was the most suitable text, the most symbolic, the one that really represents an important part of Goldoni's theater, and above all among the most significant if connected to a place and its voice ».

"It is an adaptation of the original text," he commented Damiano Michieletto, co-author of the libretto and director of the show - to which a new prologue has been added, which could be a kind of rap, or a chant where the more technical terms present in Goldoni are listed, fish, fruit, winds ... All elements that make that text characteristic. There is an underlying disquiet, because the reading we wanted to give of these Baruffe is not that typical of a comedy: we are faced with a poor humanity, and a certain drama lurks in the background color ».

«The choice to keep the Chioggia dialect - explained the conductor Enrico Calesso - as in the original Goldonian, in addition to assuming an obvious dramaturgical meaning, it determines the musical structure (...) The dramaturgical mixture of relaxation and tension, pause and excitement, expressed expressively by the dialectal coloring, involves a dramaturgical and musical structure characterized by extreme variability and expressive immediacy ".

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(Photocredit © Michele Crosera)