The Teatro del Maggio is launching a Don Giovanni preview for audiences under 30

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by OPERA Charm Magazine Team

On April 26th, at 7 p.m., young people can enjoy an absolute preview of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's masterpiece "Don Giovanni", conducted by Zubin Mehta and directed by David Pountney, the first operatic title of the 85th Maggio Festival.

A great novelty is arriving at the Teatro del Maggio: on the occasion of the inaugural opera of the 85th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the Maggio is also ready to kick off on the same model that has characterised the December 7th opening at the Teatro alla Scala for more than a decade, its premiere dedication to young people under thirty.
At an extremely reduced price, Mozart’s masterpiece is offered to young people in a preview scheduled for April 26th, 2023 at 7 pm. The performance, directed by M° Zubin Mehta, features a stellar cast consisting of Luca Micheletti (Don Giovanni), Markus Werba (Leporello), Jessica Pratt (Donna Anna), Anastasia Bartoli (Donna Elvira), Ruzil Gatin (Don Ottavio), Benedetta Torre (Zerlina), Eduardo Martìnez Flores (Masetto) and Evgeny Stavinsky (the Commendatore). David Pountney, the director of Mozart’s masterpiece, imagined his Dissoluto punito in a theatre in 1968 Prague, at the height of the enthusiasm of the Prague Spring, the city where Don Giovanni also saw its baptism, being performed there for the first time in October 1787 at the Ständetheater.
A further point of interest, therefore, especially in the eyes of younger audiences from schools, universities and vocational schools to witness not only one of the most beautiful and important operas of any era but also ‘imagined’ in a context such as the Bohemian uprisings of 1968, relevant in more than half a century later.

The opportunity for all audiences under 30 is truly unique: to attend, perhaps for someone for the first time, the prestigious preview of the inauguration of the oldest Italian Festival and one of the most prestigious internationally. One more way to fall in love with the Maggio, which with the addition of its premiere to the already solid Maggio Card initiative, takes a further and necessary step towards the younger wing of the audience.
The event cost is €10, a special price for everyone under 30 to enjoy a festive gala evening in one of our country’s most prestigious theatres.

“It will be a great festival for young people, and I hope in this way to create a new and beautiful Florentine tradition because I would like the opening of the Maggio Festival to be dedicated to high school, university and vocational school students every year. At La Scala, this project was very successful among young people, and I am sure it will be the same for Florence, so I want to propose it again at the Maggio’. The superintendent of the Maggio, Alexander Pereira, declared enthusiastically, emphasising how this initiative can bring the ‘audience of young people’ even closer to the theatre, which in recent events has been crowding the newly reopened Sala Grande and Sala Mehta in ever greater numbers. But it is not only the young audience that is giving satisfaction. A very encouraging box-office figure testifies this: “The 2022 sales result was €2,750,00, while the 2023 budget is €4 million: from this planned increase of €1,250,00, we have collected almost €1 million in just a month and a half: this is a great success for the box office.
Already in all the last shows we have seen more and more young people coming to the Maggio, which makes me very happy. We provide young people with the Maggio Card, with which they can already have many concessions, and I must say with great pleasure that in the last season alone, we issued around 4500, twice as many as in 2021. This is also a factor that optimistically underlines the fact that our audience is renewing itself. This is also why I think dedicating a special occasion to young people is very important and a sign of thanks and trust in them. Therefore, the entire theatre will be open for them at a very reasonable price this time. I am sure that for our audience of young people, a title as beloved and famous as Don Giovanni and the conducting of maestro Zubin Mehta will be a beautiful festive occasion that we will all share.
We also want to reward the three most original couples of the evening with a season ticket, valid for two people, for the Maggio’s autumn season.”

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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