–The Italian director takes the helm of Donizetti’s comic opera in a production first staged in Canada.
Granada will reconnect with opera on February 6th and 8th when the Teatro Isabel La Católica hosts Donizetti’s comic opera Don Pasquale. The work will be presented in a production by Italian stage director Stefania Panighini, which premiered at the Calgary Opera in Canada. This staging carries aesthetic influences dating back to mid-20th century Italian cinema prior to neorealism. “Don Pasquale is an opera where the clash of generations is central, and a film I saw many years ago called Le Silence est d’Or by René Clair came to mind,” explains Stefania Panighini. “The plot is the same, but there the generations clash at a crucial moment in film history: the transition from silent to sound films. Don Pasquale immediately reminded me of musicals. That’s how I found myself in the golden age of cinema between the 1940s and 50s; this production contains very famous references, for example in the final duet when Ernesto and Norina sing on a Vespa in front of the Colosseum, just like in Roman Holiday.” Furthermore, Federico Longhi, who sings Don Pasquale, draws inspiration from Vittorio De Sica himself, the legendary actor and film director.
For the stage director, imagery is a fundamental element in opera, which is why she habitually emphasizes its importance in her productions, even using videos, as is the case in this staging. “Today, video connects us with the performance in a direct way, and I use it as a poetic element—also in chamber or symphonic music—where different languages come together to create theatrical forms distinct from the canonical ones, as in my project Hoperance.” In this project, she unites and fuses the distinct languages of opera, dance, and visual arts.
Also responsible for the set design of the theatrical proposal coming to Granada through an initiative by Ópera de Granada and Juventudes Musicales Granada, Panighini is clear that, as she works with singers in a very physical way, the stage space must be suitable for it, allowing the singer-actors to move with complete comfort.
Stefania Panighini covers all aspects of theatrical performance, with training in music, theatre, choreography, literature, and audiovisual arts. With Hoperance, she researches by focusing “on body improvisation and dance with the singers themselves, seeking all the possibilities that physical languages can offer to their expressiveness as performers.” The work is done primarily off-stage, “in historical monuments, museums, libraries, where the spectator establishes an almost personal relationship with the artist.”
With the Filarmonía Granada in the pit, the Coro de Ópera de Granada and the Coro Infantil de Juventudes Musicales on stage, the cast is led by Federico Longhi (Don Pasquale), Cecilia Guzmán (Norina), Marcelo Solís (Ernesto), and Pablo Gálvez (Dottore Malatesta), with maestro Pedro Bartolomé conducting.
In Spain, Stefania Panighini has already directed operas such as Handel’s Rinaldo and Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, both at the Ópera de Tenerife.
In addition to this Spanish Don Pasquale, this season Stefania Panighini is tackling works such as Tosca (Trieste), Poulenc’s Bal masqué, the world premiere of Marco Bargagna’s La Torre (Pisa), and the first modern-era performance of Bazzini’s Turanda (Como).