Venice, La Fenice presents a new staging of Vivaldi's "Griselda"

To Venice the La Fenice Theater continues his fascinating journey to rediscover the Vivaldi operista presenting a new staging de La Griselda, an opera in three acts by the Red Priest based on a libretto by Apostle Zeno updated by Carlo Goldoni, first represented on May 18, 1735 at the San Samuele Theater in the lagoon city.

Fourth Vivaldi title proposed by La Fenice in continuity with Orlando furious (2018), Dorilla in Tempe (2019) and the most recent Farnace (2021), La Griselda, also linked to the name of Goldoni, is a further tribute - after the debut of the Scuffles by Giorgio Battistelli - that the Theater pays tribute to the city of Venice in the celebrations for the 1600th anniversary of its foundation.

The new staging de La Griselda - on stage at Malibran Theater of Venice in the days April 29, May 3, 5, 7, 8, 2022 - avails himself of the musical direction of Diego Fasolis, with the direction, sets and costumes signed by Gianluca Falaschi, and the light design curated by Alessandro Carletti is Fabio Barettin.

The cast consists of Jorge Navarro Colorado in the role of Gualtiero, Ann Hallenberg in the eponymous role, Michela Antenucci, Constance; Antonio Giovannini, Roberto; Kangmin Justin Kim, Brass; in the end Rosa Bove he will take on the clothes en travesti of Corrado. Alessandro Bortolozzo is Damiano Paccagella they will be the interpreters of the silent characters of Everardo and Griselda. The mimes will also move on the stage Carlotta Pircher is Andrea Pizzalis. The dramaturgy of the show is by Mattia Palma.

The score will be performed on the basis of the critical edition edited by Alessandro Borin is Marco Bizzarini of the Antonio Vivaldi Italian Institute - Giorgio Cini Foundation of Venice and Casa Ricordi of Milan.

Antonio Vivaldi he wrote La Griselda in 1735 and it was with this title that on the evening of May 18 he made his debut in the Grimani Theater of San Samuele after twenty-five years of assiduous commitment for the competitor Teatro Sant'Angelo. And it is probable that Michele Grimani, a powerful exponent of one of the patrician families most involved in Venetian theatrical production, proposed a new musical work on this theme to Vivaldi. The subject of the work derives from the medieval tale of the patient Griselda, narrated among others also by Boccaccio, in the short story that significantly closes the Decameron as an example of female constancy put to the test through the most cruel trials. In it Griselda, a young girl of humble birth, is married to the noble Gualtieri, who subjects her to ever new harsh tests to test her patience and above all her fidelity: she pretends to have sent her eldest daughter to death, actually sent to Bologna to be raised by a relative, and the same does years later with the son. Not happy, repudiating her poor origins, he repudiates her in favor of a young Bolognese. The woman accepts without batting an eyelid the decisions of her husband, who only at the end, satisfied by his total obedience, reveals his deception: the new bride is nothing but the daughter who has been estranged still in swaddling clothes, who has returned home with her little brother. , and all those cruel inventions have only served to test his virtue. Zeno's libretto draws heavily from the Decameron, however moving the setting from the Piedmontese Saluzzo to Sicily and adding - also on the basis of other sources - two fundamental figures such as Ottone, knight in love with Griselda, and Roberto, who constitutes with Costanza ( fake betrothed and real daughter) the second loving couple.

«From the theatrical point of view - he declared Gianluca Falaschi, director, set designer and costume designer of the staging - this subject carries with it the difficult weight of all its moralistic value. At a first reading we are faced with an extremization of Catholic, patriarchal and submissive positions to the male figure. But within this dramaturgical construction, one perceives in the development of the male characters a surge of conscience towards (and not only against) the oppressed femininity represented by the protagonist. This is why I wanted to imagine a work projected on a contemporaneity of the relationships between the characters: because it concerns us all, today as yesterday. I would not like to stage only the sacrifice of Griselda, whose patience would seem to touch sanctity: I am rather interested in toxic masculinity, the description of unhealthy relationships, addictions, family and social dynamics that lead to the acceptance of an existence of abuse as the only possibility. Because the family and society most of the time impose oppressive rules as if they were due and incontestable. In my opinion, both Goldoni and especially Vivaldi, also for personal reasons (without going too far into biographism, which I am not interested in), felt the crisis of that coercive system against the female gender. I think they were both aware that the subject represented a watershed between what seemed immutable a short while before and what would be put into crisis shortly thereafter. We are obviously talking about a non-definitive crisis, given that that same system is still today at the basis of the dynamics of many relationships ".

Diego Fasolis, one of the most internationally known Vivaldi exegetes, directs La Griselda after many other titles presented in Venice in recent years: «Antonio Vivaldi is an extraordinary opera composer who comes from the best traditions not only Venetian but 'Italian'. Perfect understanding of the balance and fantasy that the commedia dell'arte requires; music written in a way that seems simple but is intended for great artists who derive the power that is suggested from that canvas. Where the extraordinary Baroque works of Handel are of sure effect to the 'simple' execution, those of Vivaldi need interpreters who know the language and know how to reproduce it looking far beyond. Vivaldi is a great artist and a great man - continues Fasolis about Griselda - who understands human beings well. His relationship with the female sex from 'paternal' to 'fraternal' saw him pass through an era in which the 'woman' was overwhelmed, abused and exploited as she still does today. How he transferred all this into music is admirable and a sign of an advanced sensitivity ».

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(Above La Griselda, Fondazione Teatro La Fenice, photocredit © Michele Crosera, below Diego Fasolis, photocredit © Daniel Vass)