After the full success of the Il barbiere di Siviglia (2018) The Traviata (2022) and Anna Bolena (2023), LAC - Lugano Art and Culture once again measures itself with the important productive commitment of the opera and chooses to do so by staging the diptych composed of The human voice e Cavalleria rusticana in the directorial reading of Emma Dante and in the musical interpretation of Maestro Francesco Cilluffo leading the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana (OSI), with the Choir of the Swiss Radio and Television directed by Donato Sivo.
Anna Caterina Antonacci is the protagonist of the tragedy lyrique composed in 1958 by Poulenc, taken from the play namesake by Jean Cocteau. Stefano La Colla, Veronica Simeoni, Dalibor Jenis, interpreters of the roles of Turiddu, Santuzza and Alfio, are the protagonists of the famous love triangle that Mascagni composed inspired by the homonymous short story by Giovanni Verga. The cast is completed by Lucrezia Drei (Lola) and Agostina Smimmero (Mamma Lucia).
The absolute debut of the diptych took place on April 9, 2017 at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna. «They are two works that both look at solitude – declared the director Francesco Cilluffo – represented however through two different rites; in Cavalleria rusticana the religious, community and Mediterranean rite, in The human voice the private, citizen, secular one, and still current in its use of a mass communication medium such as the telephone to 'manage' a sentimental relationship. Works written by two authors with a markedly 'vocal' inspiration, who were however able to find in musical discourse a way to transfigure and make tangible the depressive nature that at the same time nourished and undermined their artistic life and their human story. Elle's dialogue with the telephone interlocutor, although characterized by an undeniable sensual dimension (to which the author himself alludes on the frontispiece of the score), also hides the metaphor of the confrontation between victim and executioner, and even between believer and God, as the Catholic Poulenc well knew […] precisely to highlight these contrasts I wanted to give prominence, in this score, to the more 'evil' and fauve punctuations of the brass and percussion, without renouncing the richness of the sentimental melodic abandonments, almost like a light chanson, which act as a counterpoint to it».
«Let it be Laadventure, both in the Cavalleria rusticana, the protagonists are women – continues director Emma Dante – in both I read the pain of abandonment, of loneliness. The places are different, the communities that inhabit them are different, but the motivation that leads to tragedy is the same: the madness of love. Extreme actions are performed for love, as extreme as the theatrical gesture in a great musical work. I tried to transfer into the intimacy of Poulenc and into the great Sicilian fresco of Mascagni the infinite ceremonies of life of which we are also a part».
The protagonist is alone on stage The human voice she doesn't even have a precise identity (her name is Elle, meaning She), and she talks on the phone with the lover who left her to marry someone else. But all we hear is her voice, in a sort of monologue hanging by a thread. A last goodbye over the phone. The woman alternates moments of extreme tenderness with others of desperate passion. The man remains invisible, but his presence is evoked in the protagonist's pauses. Every now and then, the heated conversation is interrupted, but neither of them has the courage to end this last conversation, until the tragic epilogue.
Cavalleria rusticana takes place in a small village in Sicily, on Easter Sunday. Compare Turiddu sings a serenade to his beautiful Lola, even though he knows that during his military service, she married Alfio. Among the crowd of celebrating villagers, Santuzza, Turiddu's current fiancée, also appears. Feeling in a complicated position, Santuzza decides to ask Lucia, Turiddu's mother, for advice. Lucia says that Turiddu has gone to buy wine for the celebration; when Santuzza tells her that compare Turiddu has been seen wandering around the village, Lucia - fearing that someone might hear their words - silences her, asking her to come into the house, but Santuzza refuses. Alfio arrives at Lucia's house, having come to visit Turiddu's mother. Alfio asks her about the wine for the celebration, Lucia repeats that Turiddu was taking care of it. Alfio replies that he saw it in the morning, near her house. As soon as Alfio leaves the scene, Santuzza reveals to Lucia that Turiddu and Lola are having an affair. Lucia, astonished, turns to the Madonna for the sin committed by her son. Turiddu, who quarrels with Santuzza, and Lola enter the scene. Lola leaves to go to church; at this point the argument between Turiddu and Santuzza becomes so bad that Turiddu attacks Santuzza, who wishes him a bad Easter.
Deeply hurt and embittered, Santuzza reveals to Alfio that his wife is having an affair with Turiddu. After the service, Turiddu offers wine to the villagers, with the intention of spending more time with Lola; the wine is also offered to Alfio, who refuses it. Turiddu approaches Alfio to embrace him, a gesture that, in fact, is a ploy to bite his ear, challenging him to a duel. Now completely drunk, Turiddu embraces his mother and recommends her to look after Santuzza. The act ends with a shout from the crowd: "They've killed compare Turiddu!".
The premiere on Monday 15 September at 20:00 pm will be followed by repeats on Wednesday 17 and Friday 19 September at 20:00 pm, and Sunday 21 September at 16:00 pm.
