A study in black and terror in Naples

By Lorenzo Fiorito, 17 April 2018

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“a dark, gloomy story as unambiguously told as it should be”

Reviewed at Teatro di San Carlo, Naples on 15 April 2018

Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

Teatro di San Carlo

Juraj Valčuha, Conductor

Martin Kušej, Director

Martin Zehetgruber, Set Designer

Heide Kastler, Costume Designer

Natalia Kreslina, Katerina Lvovna Izmailova

Elena Mikhailenko, Katerina Lvovna Izmailova

Ladislav Elgr, Sergey

Ludovit Ludha, Zinoviy Borisovich Izmailov

Dmitry Ulianov, Boris Timofeyevich Izmailov

Julia Gertseva, Sonyetka

Vladimir Vaneyev, Old Convict

Goran Jurić, Priest

Carole Wilson, Aksinya

Vasily Efimov, Schoolmaster

Evgeny Akimov, Tattered peasant

Alexander Teliga, Police inspector

Vladimir Sazdovski, Policeman

Coro del Teatro di San Carlo

Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo

Mariinsky Theatre Chorus

Rosa Feola’s Lucia rescues a San Carlo production showing its age

Lorenzo Fiorito, 11th March

Gianni Amelio's 2021 production of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro di San Carlo serves the music, but it no longer commands the same sense of discovery.

***11

Laurent Pelly’s Falstaff passes the Naples test with flying colours

Lorenzo Fiorito, 15th February

The French director’s much-travelled production arrives at the Teatro di San Carlo, displaying a precise balance between word, gesture and voice.

*****

Ludovic Tézier delivers a noble Nabucco in Naples

Lorenzo Fiorito, 18th January

Andreas Homoki’s staging at the Teatro di San Carlo, setting aside a few inconsistencies with the libretto, does not indulge in redundant symbolism.

***11

Ennio Morricone’s only opera, Partenope, finally premiered in Naples

Lorenzo Fiorito, 14th December

Vanessa Beecroft’s production of Ennio Morricone’s demanding sole opera relies on strong visual images.

***11

San Carlo’s Medea a clash of worlds in a neoclassical framework

Lorenzo Fiorito, 10th December

A new Medea at the Teatro di San Carlo presents three distinct visions – neoclassical in the pit, expressionistic on stage and conceptual in the direction – that never fully merge.

***11

Vocal triumph in Un ballo in maschera at the Teatro di San Carlo

Lorenzo Fiorito, 11th October

Faithful to the libretto’s dramaturgy, the staging unfolds in scenographic environments of strong impact -

****1

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Lorenzo Fiorito

Lorenzo Fiorito holds degrees in Humanities and in Languages and Literatures, and a Phd in Languages for Special Purposes. He is a lecturer in historical musicological subjects at the Pegaso University, Naples, the Universitas Mercatorum, Rome and MEDEA Higher Education Institution, Malta, currently researching musicology as a special language. He is a member of the National Music Critics Association and of the Italian Society of Musicology. He edited a series of volumes in Musicology and History of Music for the publisher Diana Edizioni, mainly concerning the Neapolitan School of Music of the 18th century, and is the founder and artistic director of the “Francesco Durante Festival” in Frattamaggiore.

A study in black and terror: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in Naples