Il Matrimonio Segreto, the Young Version

At RegioYoung, Domenico Cimarosa's opera is staged in a version dedicated for school and family audiences, directed by Roberto Catalano, and conducted by M° Davide Levi/Pietro Mazzetti, on the podium of the Cupiditas Orchestra.

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by OPERA Charm Team

February 6, 2023

At RegioYoung 2023, Il Matrimonio Segreto is staged in a special version, lasting about 1 hour, in four appointments dedicated to children’s audiences: the performances scheduled for Saturday, February 11th at 4 p.m., and Saturday, February 18th, 3 p.m. and 5.30 p.m., are dedicated to families, while the performance on Wednesday, February 15th 10 a.m., is reserved for school audiences.
Maintaining the brilliant narrative device of the opera intact, without omitting any of the characters
of the original libretto, and keeping the score intact, this version, stage directed by Roberto Catalano and conducted by M° Davide Levi, is the result of a work of synthesis that concentrates the story of Carolina
and Paolino in a dramaturgy that gives prominence to the most dynamic moments of the plot, in order to give back to the younger audiences this masterpiece of 18th-century opera in all its vivacious character.

The staging is a co-production with Ópera de Tenerife and Teatro Massimo di Palermo, stage directed by Roberto Catalano, with sets by Emanuele Sinisi, costumes by Ilaria Ariemme, lighting by Fiammetta
Baldiserri, choreographic movements by Sandhya Nagaraja. On the podium of the Cupiditas Orchestra, Davide Levi and, for the performances on February 15th and 18th Pietro Mazzetti. Starring Giulia Mazzola / Veronika Seghers (Carolina), Antonio Mandrillo / Bekir Serbest (Paolino), Veta Pilipenko / Valentina Stadler (Fidalma), Francesco Leone / Ignas Melnikas (Geronimo), Marilena Ruta / Eleonora Nota (Elisetta), Jan Antem / Ramiro Maturana (Count Robinson).

We are on Broadway, in the 1950s: here Geronimo, a Neapolitan who emigrated to New York, has opened a luxurious pastry shop and dreams of marriages with rich aristocrats for his two daughters. But the youngest daughter, Carolina, who dreams of making her debut in Broadway theatres with her idol Gene Kelly, loves the delivery boy, Paolino, whom she marries in secret.

“In this small world”, explains stage director Roberto Catalano, “made up of more or less sincere desires and aspirations, characters move around who are more or less sincere, move characters who tend towards what they believe may be an idea of happiness: the frantic and hasty search to which we all seem so devoted that, more often than not, it leads nowhere. And then, there are the newlyweds with their simple happiness, their dreams and their imagination that can always lift them from the burden of the need for what is always further away from where they are. This is what probably brought them together and this is what will always keep them safe. Geronimo & Co. is the little world where, for a whole day, feelings are born and live closer to us than we can imagine”.

DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE A L'OPÉRA DE PARIS

October 2024

OPERA CHARM TEAM

PREMIERE OF ‘DON CARLO’ AT WIENER STAATSOPER

September 2024

Opera Charm Team

Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

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