I due Foscari - from 22 May to 3 June 2022
The drama is in fact built entirely on the contrast between paternal love and love of country of Doge Francesco Foscari and on the pains of his son Jacopo, unjustly accused of murder and of having plotted against the Republic of Venice. In the course of the work, nothing more happens than what was already expressed at the beginning and also Piave's additions such as the apparition of the ghost of Carmagnola, or the mother scene of Lucrezia who bursts with her children in tow before the Council of Ten to defending her husband, in reality they are unable to move a plot devoid of narrative elements capable of keeping the theatrical action alive. But while lacking the liveliness of action and the backbone of previous Verdi plays, I due Foscari stands out for some new and experimental compositional solutions. The orchestration, for example, becomes more subtle and accurate, with a prominent place reserved for the harp and the woods that return an elegiac and nocturnal instrumental hue perfectly adhering to the image of Venice described by Byron, the endings of act end without the traditional squeeze and the reminiscent motifs appear in a systematic way; in fact, each character is associated with a musical motif that reappears, like a business card, every time the protagonists return to the scene.
Le nozze di Figaro - from 7 to 15 May 2022
It was 1786, and 1 May was the date of the debut at the Burgtheater in Vienna of the first of three masterpieces by Mozart in collaboration with Lorenzo Da Ponte: Le nozze di Figaro. The story, based on the well-known Le mariage de Figaro by Beaumarchais in 1778, was particularly suited to Mozart in terms of the play of situations and characters, which was ideal for an unprecedented psychological examination set to music. The score is characterised from the very beginning by a notable vitality: the overture draws us into the crazed day of Figaro and his companions, and from that moment the music acquiring such force as to become action itself, through plots twists, disguises, ploys, un-kept promises, unexpected revelations and tormented love, but also nostalgia and anguish, right up to the conciliating end of the fourth act, which returns harmony and order to things.
