Opera as circus: a controversial Cav & Pag in Rome

By Mark Pullinger, 06 April 2018

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“If it was designed to ruffle the audience's feathers, it worked”

Reviewed at Teatro Costanzi, Teatro dell'Opera, Rome on 5 April 2018

Mascagni, Cavalleria rusticana

Leoncavallo, Pagliacci

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Carlo Rizzi, Conductor

Pippo Delbono, Director

Sergio Tramonti, Set Designer

Giusi Giustino, Costume Designer

Anita Rachvelishvili, Santuzza

Martina Belli, Lola

Alfred Kim, Turiddu

Gevorg Hakobyan, Alfio, Tonio

Anna Malavasi, Mamma Lucia

Fabio Sartori, Canio

Carmela Remigio, Nedda

Matteo Falcier, Beppe

Dionysios Sourbis, Silvio

Coro del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Grigolo shines in a mixed new Roméo et Juliette at the Opera di Roma

Pia Maltri, 28th April

With its 1940s setting, Luca Del Fusco’s direction alienates in a new production of Gounod's Shakespeare-inspired opera.

***11

Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno returns to Rome

Pia Maltri, 7th April

Robert Carsen’s staging of Handel's oratorio arrives, via Salzburg, in the city where Handel composed it in 1707.

****1

Ariadne in Rome: David Hermann’s Strauss staging highlights contrasts

Pia Maltri, 1st March

In an opera rarely staged in Italy, David Hermann skilfully masters the metatheatrical challenges posed by the libretto to Ariadne auf Naxos.

****1

Abandon all hope: Lucia Ronchetti's Inferno receives Italian premiere

Pia Maltri, 19th February

The Italian premiere of Lucia Ronchetti’s Inferno at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma uses Dante’s original verses, but her score fails to match their beauty.

***11

Livermore’s successful Bohème opens at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Pia Maltri, 14th January

Originally staged at the Caracalla Baths in 2014, Davide Livermore’s production comes in from the cold.

****1

Wagner’s Lohengrin finally returns – swanless – to Rome

Pia Maltri, 27th November

Damiano Michieletto is entrusted with the first staging of Lohengrin in Rome for 50 years, but his distracting staging is redeemed by the musical side of things.

***11

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Opera as circus: a controversial Cav & Pag double bill in Rome