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Verona Novanta-nove [ Author Michael Daniel Watson ] [ From category THE Articles ] [ Subcategory Arena din Verona ] [ Article date: 2022-08-20 ] [ From city Verona ] [ Country Italia ]   This year, 2022, Arena di Verona celebrates its 99th Opera Summer Festival, after 109 years after the first edition. The festival is yearly - and this means... Aida! (I shall come back to this) - but it was not held every year because of the world wars. From the first edition "Aida" of Giuseppe Verdi was presented almost every edition. And it is the most played title. Not randomly. "Aida" is one of the most beautiful performances. And not just it! Aida has a semnification. I guess you remarked that I wrote Aida without quotes! Because I am talking about the word Aida, not the opera! In this year, 2022, Arena has, as usual, 5 big titles and some dedicated evenings. The titles are "Aida" (of corse), "La traviata", "Nabucco" from La Roncole`s peasant (how he liked to present himself), "Turandot" from honeyed Puccini and "Carmen" from Bizet, the only title not italian. The special evenings are "Carmina Burana", "Domingo in Verdi Opera Night", "Roberto Bolle and Friends" "Aida" from 5th of August was not the original one. Arena used to present a version each year, not necessarily a new one. For its honour, Arena is still presenting "Aida" from the 1913, which means... from the first edition of the festival! This year, how I said, it was not the original one, but a nice version created (and directed at the premiere) by Franco Zeffirelli himself! Egypt means pyramids! So it was a big pyramid in the center of the stage. But not a common one, but made of pipes! Golden pipes! And rotative one! With many faces! And when it`s rotated it reveals a Sphinx face. The spectators likes the movement and Arena collects a new flow of aplauses. The costumes were also spectacular. Full of living colours - but not strident - predominant blue, golden and red in the Egyptian style and acompaniated with Egyptian wolves, harness and arms. The pipes of the pyramid created an interesting background and all was guarded by 2 sphinxes (one at each lateral of the pyramid) and 2 big deity status and Amneris had a big Egyptian golden wolf statue with big ears in her room used as bed and chair. For the Nile river the spectators needed to use their imagination because the logest river in the world was represented by blue dressed girls having slow wave dance moves. The priests were in black while Aida and Radames were in blue against a brown Amneris. The cast was superclass, too. The Texan Latonia Moore as Aida, the Spanish (from Tenerife) Jorge de Leòn as Radames, the Russian Olesya Petrova as the bad character, Amneris, and the Mongolian Amartuvshin Enkhbat as Amonasro all under the baton of the Israeli Daniel Oren. "La traviata" of the next day, 6th of August, benefited the voice of American (New Orleans) Lisette Oropesa as Violetta Valery, the Italian (Arezzo) great voice Vittorio Grigolo as Alfredo Germont and the Marseilles Ludovic Tezier as Giorgio Germont. An azure Violetta Lisette and friends in tuxedo (including Alfredo) or evening dresses gave life in the night to "Li biamo" - "Let`s drink! " ;-) The decors were big and with good taste. First part, Violleta`s house, a "palazzo" with two levels, azure rooms at the first floor, grand ball room at the ground level and lodges at each lateral of the palace. The second part, near Paris, a high metal build construction looking more as a greenhouse and a big bird cage on the left, when Violetta goes metaphorical whe she decides to leave Alfredo. Flora`s party was held in happy colours, pink to purple decor. The end got white dressed Violleta at the first floor, but during the instrumental introduction she get down on the stairs and "land" in her white sheets big bed located at the ground floor. "Turandot" from the 7th of August was... how we expected... big and chinese. A lot of local (chinese) draws with dragons, altoreliefs on a big gray-blue walls. To create a beautiful contrast, the costumes have lightfull colors. Ping, Pang, Pong were in light red, dark yellow and green with some red, well highlighted in contrast with the gray-blue walls in the background and the Moon on the edge of the Arena, exactly behind the scene. :-) The voices are Everest, too. The main soprano, Turandot princess, is, as Verona`s Arena itself, one of the greatest in the World in this moment: Anna Netrebko! She was accompanied by Yusif Eyvazov as the Unknown prince, Maria Teresa Leva in Liu, the most important secondary character, Carlo Bosi as ten thoudand years imperatore Altoum and Ferruccio Furlanetto as blind Timur. Ping, Pang, Pong were Gëzim Myshketa, Riccardo Rados and Matteo Mezzaro. Arena`s "Carmen" - the second opera presented in Arena in 1914! - bringes you directly from Italy to Spain. Faster than Frecciarossa and Ave togheter. :-) Arena di Verona has this gift, to "move" people in Egypt ("Aida"), China ("Turandot"), Spain ("Carmen") or else! The music accords of George Bizet`s "Carmen" combinated with the big and local of subject decors transpose the audience in a market of Sevilla close to the cigarettes factory where Carmen, Manuelita and the other women work. In this way - and divine interpreted by super Elina Garanca - "Habanera" became closer to the heart, loving more Carmen - or hating her more if you are in Manuelita`s side. ;-) Don Jose (Brian Jagde) tried to play rough, but the italian summer hit and Carmen milked him and even if he had blue and yellow soldier costume - btw these are the colours of the local football teams, Hellas and Chievo... :-) Never played at these clubs, he is played through fingers by the beautiful Carmen and... got to prison... But all bad for good, he delighted with his "La fleur que tu m`avais jetee". Micaela, Maria Teresa Leva, dressed classical with azure dress, song very well her arias - just not enough arias, if you ask me :-) , but you don`t ask me, right? :-) Brown hair, looked shy, exactely how Verdi... sorry, Bizet :-) imagined her. The least, but not the last, il torero Escamillo (Claudio Sgura) raised the degrees of the atmosphere even he was a "civilian" in the mountains or the great warrior in the torre arena. Aida is an arabic word and it has a semnification. In Verdi`s masterpiece, it`s an Ethiopian name, but I found translation - the same translation! - in Egypt or from a Syrian friend! And its semnification is... yearly! So this can be also an argument why Verdi`s great "Aida" is presented every year at Arena di Verona! ;-) So the next edition of Arena di Verona`s Opera Festival... is CENTO! Meaning... ONE HUNDRED! The schedule is already ready and it contains Aida by Giuseppe Verdi - New production Carmen by Georges Bizet - Staged by Franco Zeffirelli Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini - Staged by Hugo de Ana Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi - Staged by Franco Zeffirelli Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi - Staged by Gianfranco de Bosio Tosca by Giacomo Puccini - Staged by Hugo de Ana Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini - Staged by Franco Zeffirelli and 5 extraordinary evenings: Roberto Bolle and Friends Juan Diego Flórez in Opera-Arena 100 Plácido Domingo in Opera-Arena 100 Jonas Kaufmann in Opera-Arena 100 Teatro alla Scala in Arena As the organisers said: "From 16 June till 9 September 2023, a programme never seen before to celebrate 100 years of opera in the Arena" Let`s quote more: "Fondazione Arena di Verona has announced an extraordinary Festival for 2023 to celebrate the one hundredth Arena Opera Festival, where it will be presenting an international audience with the most successful, repeated works performed in the amphitheatre during the 100 seasons since its beginnings in 1913. That means a total of 50 unrepeatable performances in under three months! " The first two nights of Festival 2023 are already on sale! A programme never seen!

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30-09-2024: Aida storica 1913
"Aida" in Verona 100 + 1. A hundred emotions plus one, yours!

Arena di Verona, the most Italian place on Earth!

These are the slogans through which Arena di Verona has chosen this year, 2024, to promote the Opera Festiva
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[ Author Michael Daniel Watson ]
From category THE Articles

21-09-2024: Aida shines brightly at the Arena di Verona
The Arena di Verona is also presenting a modern version of Aida, in addition to the old but wonderful version from 1913. And it looks something like this!

The stage is tilted, and the floor is made of glass. In the center, a giant hand
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[ Author Michael Daniel Watson ]
From category THE Articles

11-09-2024: Tosca a Verona 2024
Mario`s painting is huge, but... it`s on the floor, lying on its side. Mario doesn`t actually paint it, but "works" on some sketches. In the center of the stage you can see some huge shapes/objects, covered with black cloths. There are also two canno
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[ Author Michael Daniel Watson ]
From category THE Articles

01-09-2024: “La boheme” at Arena di Verona
Arena di Verona. We arrive. We park. We get off. We take a few pictures with the Arena in the background, then ... a heavy rain starts! We take shelter under a tree. :-) I don`t think the show is happening anymore, but we can`t leave either, so we ju
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[ Author Michael Daniel Watson ]
From category THE Articles

20-12-2023: Spoletta, symbol of Hungarian anti-communist resistance
Budapest Opera House was inaugurated in 1884 to be a competition for Vienna StaatsOper. It is localised in the center of the hungarian capital, just a few minutes behind St. Stefan cathedral, the bigest church of the city. In 2022 is was open again a
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[ Author Michael Daniel Watson ]
From category THE Articles

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