The 73rd “A. Belli” Opera Seasons opens with
King of Women: a femicide story
The work, loosely based on news stories including the Avetrana mystery itself, deals with the phenomenon of femicide.
Caio Melisso Theater | 6, 7 and 8 September 2019
Spoleto, 2 September 2019 – King of Women, the work by composer John Palmer on a libretto by Cristina Battocletti and John Palmer, debuts as a world premiere at the Teatro Caio Melisso in Spoleto on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 September 2019 at 20.30 and Sunday 8 September 2019 at 17.00. The inaugural show of the 73rd Experimental Opera Season of Spoleto will be conducted by Maestro Vittorio Parisi, directed by Alessio Pizzech, scenes by Andrea Stanisci, costumes by Clelia De Angelis and lights by Eva Bruno. The winners of the European Community Competition for young opera singers of the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale of Spoleto “A. Belli “- ed. 2012, 2017 and 2018 – Lada Bočková (Ivana), Marco Rencinai (Rocco), Miryam Marcone (Martina) and Daniela Nineva (Frida).
For years now, the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale has inaugurated its season with a work specially commissioned for the occasion. In fact, the dialogue with the contemporary is a strongly characterizing element of part of the activity of the Theater that every day promotes the formation of young artists and stimulates a reflection on current issues and beyond. Therefore, even King of Women is a work freely inspired by news stories that have aroused great interest in public opinion, including the crime of Avetrana. The work – states composer and co-author of the libretto John Palmer – tells the phenomenon of femicide “by investigating the psychological aspects that emerged from a dangerous love triangle involving two women and a man from a small town in the province of Tuscany. A series of events triggered by jealousy and the desire for control that will destroy the lives of three women, and “legitimized” by the chauvinism of a young man who will eventually remain untouched by any sentence».
John Palmers music is innovative, at times strident, as are the theatrical situations that arise from the libretto, with vast use of electronics and amplification of the whole orchestra ensemble of the performers.
By necessarily going through a careful investigation of the psyche of the characters, King of Women offers a reading of the reality clouded by sick cultural models, bringing to the stage a humanity without instruments of introspective analysis, which has lost its direction. “Everything happens as in a television studio – reiterates Leghornese director Alessio Pizzech – between cell phones and discrete bodies, between young people dressed and made up like forty-year-olds, but with the heart and emotion of a fifteen-year-old, in a constant judging and being judged, in a search for a kiss or an obscene gesture that confuses the dimension of the private and the public by altering and desecrating the relationship between human beings”.
The 73rd Experimental Opera Season continues with 18th-century intermezzoes Drossilla and Nesso (Teatro Caio Melisso | 13 – 14 September 2019 at 20.30 and 15 September 2019 at 17.00); Operalieder Liebeslieder on music by Brahms, Schubert and Schumann (Villa Redenta | 18 September 2019 at 21.00) and the Barbiere di Siviglia directed by Paolo Rossi (Teatro Nuovo | 17 September 2019 at 18.00 (also for schools) | 18 – 19 September 2019 at 10.00 (also for schools) | 20 – 21 September 2019 at 20.30 and 22 September 2019 at 17.00).
