These are the titles of the 2023 festival, which will be held from 16 November to 3 December: LU OpeRave, Il diluvio universale, Alfredo il Grande, Lucie de Lammermoor and Il piccolo compositore di musica.
The three weekends will therefore open (16, 23 and 30 November) with the new LU OpeRave creation (initially planned for 2022) in which Donizetti’s music meets electronics and new trends. The title recalls Donizetti’s most famous opera, Lucia di Lammermoor, from which the authors of this new experimental project drew inspiration. The show will take place in an unconventional city location, with space for conviviality and the audience as an integral part of the performance.
The first operatic title at the Donizetti Theatre on 17 and 25 November and 3 December, will be Il diluvio universale (Naples, 1830) a tragic-sacred opera scheduled following the new critical edition by Edoardo Cavalli for the Donizetti Theatre Foundation.
For the #donizetti200 cycle, with which the festival stages a Donizetti title that turns two centuries old, we will have the heroic opera Alfredo il Grande (Naples, 1823) at the Donizetti Theatre on 19 and 24 November, with a new edition based on the opera’s sources, edited again by Edoardo Cavalli.
The third title, at the Teatro Sociale on 18 and 26 November and then on 1 December, will be Lucie de Lammermoor, which premiered at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris in 1839 and was received with such acclaim that Donizetti was commissioned to write two new operas for that theatre, the first of which was to be L’Ange de Nisida.
The fifth production of the festival will be Il piccolo compositore di musica, Saturday 2 December at the Donizetti Theatre, an azione teatrale in two acts by Johann Simon Mayr. Francesco Micheli will stage the production with the students of Bottega Donizetti as part of a project involving several Bergamo educational institutions.
The commission of the 42nd edition of the "Franco Abbiati" Music Critics Award has awarded the opening title of Donizetti Opera 2022, La favorite, directed by Riccardo Frizza and staged by Valentina Carrasco, the Abbiati Award for "Best Show of the Year."
This is the first time that a production from the Bergamo festival, under the direction of Francesco Micheli, has received the highest recognition among the categories considered annually for this prestigious award. In 2020, L'ange de Nisida received the "Special Award," while in 2016, soprano Carmela Remigio and conductor Corrado Rovaris were recognized for their performance in Anna Bolena, the first title staged by the festival.
«I am very happy for this recognition - says Riccardo Frizza, the festival's musical director and conductor for La favorite. It acknowledges the dedication of everyone who makes the festival possible and the choices made over the years with Francesco Micheli. Our commitment is to present Donizetti and his operas with the execution quality and dramatic dignity they deserve. In La favorite, no one has ever taken a step back, from Valentina Carrasco and her entire team to the cast, especially Annalisa Stroppa and Javier Camarena, from the technicians to the orchestra, the chorus, and the wonderful 'favorites' of all ages. We have faced difficult moments in recent years, but the festival has never stopped, and this award, in the year of Bergamo Brescia Capital of Culture, makes me even prouder to be a resident of Brescia in Donizetti's city».
Our major donors through their philanthropic contributions will be recognised throughout the year and highlighted during the Festival alongside the prestigious public and private supporters in Italy that have been supporting Donizetti Opera Festival. Friends enjoy many benefits during the Festival, including rare privileges at opera and musical performances, exhibitions and symposia, as well as invitations to private social gatherings and exclusive behind-the-scenes visits. Friends are recognised before and after the Festival through on-going communications and social gatherings in many cities around the world, with a strong focus in the U.S.A.
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Among our best composers, the one who needs more than others a festival is also the most humanly sympathetic and, at the same time, artistically undervalued: Gaetano Donizetti.
La Stampa
So should a festival be organized, with rare titles, original and not recycled essays on the theatre programmes, with young and famous singers together. For Donizetti, in Bergamo, you are spoilt for choice.
Il Sole 24 Ore
Along the streets of Bergamo Alta Donizetti's music is diffused, in the shopwindows t-shirts and pictures of the Festival Donizetti shine red, even on the square, the Christmas tree is glittering with Donizetti's icons
Corriere della Sera
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