Dal 2 al 23 Marzo 2013.
Presentato dal Washington National Opera e dall'Ambasciata italiana / Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Unisciti al regista John Pascoe e al baritono italiano Giorgio Caoduro per un programma di discussione e di musica che esplora questo classico Puccini. Intensamente romantica e drammaticamente avvincente, Manon Lescaut è stata la prima opera di Puccini, ha stabilito la sua carriera come compositore e ha gettato le basi per i suoi futuri successi con La bohème, Tosca e Madama Butterfly.
  
L'ingresso è gratuito, ma è richiesta la prenotazione.
 
 
Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) was a little known and destitute composer with only two operas to his credit—neither of them particularly successful—when he chose the Abbé Prévost’s famous novel as his next subject. Although the work had already enjoyed considerable renown on the opera stage as Jules Massenet’s 1884 masterpiece, Manon, Puccini was convinced that he had finally found a story and characters suited to his own particular strengths, famously declaring that while “[Massenet] feels the subject as a Frenchman, with the powder and the minuets, I shall feel it as an Italian, with desperate passion.” He was correct. Working with no less than six successive librettists over a three-year period, Puccini consciously avoided duplication of Manon’s scenes (as much as possible), resulting in a more succinct, episodic, and dramatic work. Upon its 1893 premiere, Manon Lescaut was hailed as a critical and popular success and quickly taken up by opera houses throughout the world.

The work of British director and designer John Pascoe (Director, Set Designer, and Costume Designer for Manon Lescaut) was seen earlier this season at WNO in Don Giovanni (2012). A veteran at WNO, he has also worked for most of the world’s leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Spoleto Festivals (both USA and Italy), Rome, Royal Opera House, and English National Opera. In 2010 his Hob in the Well opened the Spoleto Festival USA; for the 2011 festival, his production of Menotti’s The Medium celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the maestro’s birth. In 2007 the DVD of his Ercole su'l Termodonte won “DVD of the Year” in Italy.
Also acclaimed DVDs are Lucrezia Borgia (Royal Opera House) and Anna Bolena (Toronto), both with Joan Sutherland; Ariodante (Spoleto); as well as Julius Caesar (English National Opera). In 2012 he was appointed artistic director of the Accademia dei Licini, Italy’s leading Shakespeare Theater, which opened with his highly successful production of Antony and Cleopatra.

Italian baritone Giorgio Caoduro (Lescaut) has performed in many of the world’s leading opera houses such as Teatro alla Scala, Paris Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Royal Opera House, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Opera Australia, Glyndebourne Festival, and many others. He made his U.S. debut as Figaro in The Dallas Opera’s production of Il barbiere di Siviglia (2006), followed by a debut at San Francisco Opera as Belcore in L’elisir d’amore (2008) and as Dulcamara in the same opera at LA Opera (2010). This season he will add Germont in La traviata to his repertoire for his debut with Florida Grand Opera.

Chilean baritone Javier Arrey is in his third year of WNO’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program.  This season with WNO, he will be covering the role of Lescaut in Manon Lescaut.He recently made his debut at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain in Menotti’s Amelia al ballo and The Telephone,and recently performed Silvio in Pagliacci in Mumbai, India. In WNO’s 2010-2011 season he appeared as Yamadori in Madama Butterfly and as a Scythian in Iphigénie en Tauride. In 2011 he won the CulturArte prize at the Operalia competition in Moscow.



Notizia e immagini tratte dall' Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Washington