A riveder le stelle - 7th December 2020

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Fondazione di diritto privato

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Chairman Giuseppe Sala
Members Mayor of Milan

Giovanni Bazoli
Maite Carpio Bulgari
Giacomo Campora
Nazzareno Carusi
Claudio Descalzi
Alberto Meomartini
Francesco Micheli
Aldo Poli

Dominique Meyer
Superintendent and Artistic Director

Riccardo Chailly
Musical Director

Maria Di Freda
General Manager

BOARD OF AUDITORS Tammaro Maiello
Chairman
Regular Members Fabio Giuliani
Pasqualino Castaldi
Deputy Member
Manuela Simonetti

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7 December 2020

“... a riveder le stelle”

“… to gaze anew at the stars”

Orchestra and Choir of the Teatro alla Scala
Riccardo Chailly

Conductor

Davide Livermore

Director

Bruno Casoni

Chorus Director

Michele Gamba

Ballet Conductor

Manuel Legris

Ballet Director

Stage supervision

Davide Livermore, Giò Forma

Costume supervision

Gianluca Falaschi

Digital sets

D-WOK

Lighting Designer

Marco Filibeck

Dramaturgy Collaborators
Davide Livermore
Paolo Gep Cucco
Andrea Porcheddu
Alfonso Antoniozzi
Gianluca Falaschi
Chiara Osella

EDIZIONI DEL TEATRO ALLA SCALA

PROGRAM

GiuSePPe VeRDi RiChARD WAGneR
from RIGOLETTO from DIE WALKÜRE

Preludio Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond...
Du bist der Lenz
Cortigiani, vil razza dannata
LuCA SALSi, baritone Camilla nylund, soprano
Andreas Schager, tenor
La donna è mobile
VittORiO GRiGOLO, tenor GAetAnO DOnizetti
from DON PASQUALE
from DON CARLO
Quel guardo il cavaliere...
Ella giammai m’amò! So anch’io la virtù magica
iLDAR ABDRAzAKOV, bass ROSA FeOLA, soprano

Per me giunto è il dì supremo... Io morrò from L’ELISIR D’AMORE
LuDOViC tezieR, baritone
Una furtiva lagrima
O don fatale JuAn DieGO FLORez, tenor
eLĪnA GARAnČA, mezzo-soprano
PËtR iL’iČ ČAJKOVSKiJ
GAetAnO DOnizetti from THE NUTCRACKER
from LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
Adagio from the Grand pas de deux, Act II
Regnava nel silenzio Choreography by Rudolf Nureyev
LiSette OROPeSA, soprano Costumes by Nicholas Georgiadis
niCOLettA MAnni,
GiACOMO PuCCini tiMOFeJ AnDRiJAShenKO
from MADAMA BUTTERFLY
GiACOMO PuCCini
Tu? Tu? Piccolo Iddio! from TURANDOT
KRiStine OPOLAiS, soprano
Signore, ascolta
ALeKSAnDRA KuRzAK, soprano

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GeORGeS Bizet GiuSePPe VeRDi
from CARMEN from OTELLO
Prélude
Credo
L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera) CARLOS ÁLVARez, baritone
MARiAnne CReBASSA, mezzo-soprano
uMBeRtO GiORDAnO
La fleur que tu m’avais jetée from ANDREA CHÉNIER
PiOtR BeCzAłA, tenor
Nemico della patria
GiuSePPe VeRDi PLACiDO DOMinGO, baritone
from UN BALLO IN MASCHERA
La mamma morta
Morrò, ma prima in grazia SOnyA yOnCheVA, soprano
eLeOnORA BuRAttO, soprano
GiACOMO PuCCini
Eri tu from TOSCA
GeORGe PeteAn, baritone
E lucevan le stelle
Forse la soglia attinse... Ma se m’è forza perderti ROBeRtO ALAGnA, tenor
FRAnCeSCO MeLi, tenor
from TURANDOT
JuLeS MASSenet
from WERTHER Nessun dorma
PiOtR BeCzAłA, tenor
Pourquoi me réveiller
BenJAMin BeRnheiM, tenor from MADAMA BUTTERFLY

WAVES Un bel dì, vedremo
Choreography by Massimiliano Volpini Marina Rebeka, soprano
Music by Davide Boosta Dileo and Erik Satie
GiOAChinO ROSSini
Light Designer Valerio Tiberi from GUGLIELMO TELL
ROBeRtO BOLLe
Tutto cangia, il ciel s’abbella
VERDI SUITE eLeOnORA BuRAttO, ROSA FeOLA,
Choreography by Manuel Legris
MARiAnne CReBASSA,
Music by Giuseppe Verdi JuAn DieGO FLÓRez, LuCA SALSi,
Costumes by Luisa Spinatelli
CARLOS ÁLVARez,
World premiere MiRCO PALAzzi, bass
MARtinA ARDuinO, ViRnA tOPPi,

CLAuDiO COVieLLO
MARCO AGOStinO, niCOLA DeL FReO

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Linda Gennari
I am Music, in sweet accents I
can soothe all troubled hearts,
and so with noble ire, or love,
enflame the coldest minds.
L’Orfeo, music by Claudio Monteverdi,
libretto by Alessandro Striggio, 1607

Massimo Popolizio
Here we are...
And the dust settling on our heads in
the darkness of the loft. And below
the stage, in the trap room, in the
mysterious depths of the theatre, all
the mechanisms to move the scenery
to suit the needs of our strange,
useless, marvellous angst…
feigning life.
Ingmar Bergman,
After the Rehearsal, 1984

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THE MUSIC, THE THEATRE, THE ORCHESTRA

Maria Chiara Centorami
Alessandro Lussiana
Marouane Zotti
The Orchestra perfectly represents an
ideal society, and it can take on the
flaws of real societies. But I love
ideals, human ideals, because they are
in our scores, which are our
Constitutions. The score is our
Constitution because it brings
everything together, it unites the
singularities, not the individualities.
What is an ideal society? It is that
every section, in each of its
singularities, is essential. It is every
section that goes into composing
the wonder that becomes life.
I will never stop saying it:
we don’t play better to destroy our
neighbour, we play better so that our
neighbour plays better. We are proud
of those who play better.
Ezio Bosso, 2019

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Giuseppe Verdi mordant entertainer contrasts sharply with
Rigoletto (1851) the deep humanity he expresses in his
love for his daughter Gilda. A tragedy
(Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave) combining passion, filial love, betrayal,
and vendetta, the opera presents
Liberally drawn from Victor Hugo’s play characters whose intense dramatic and
Le roi s’amuse and composed to a libretto musical characterization develops as the
by Francesco Maria Piave, the three-act story unfolds in a perfect equilibrium
opera Rigoletto (Venice, Teatro La Fenice, between freedom of experimentation and
11 March 1851) is part of the ‘popular adherence to the formal conventions of
trilogy’, together with Il trovatore (1853) Italian opera.
and La traviata (1853), that brought
Giuseppe Verdi – according to widely C.F.
shared critical opinion – to his artistic
maturity and international fame. The
protagonist, Rigoletto, is a hunchbacked
court jester whose role as a cynical and

Prelude

As would be habitual in Verdi’s later works,
the brief Prelude is a sort of compendium of
the dramatic contents of the opera. The
brass, led by the trumpet and the trombone,
establish the motif in a dotted rhythm that
will be associated with the ‘curse’ cast by
Monterone on Rigoletto (the central theme,
as emphasized by Verdi himself). The motif
grows in volume and intensity, finally
exploding into impassioned sobbing with the
full orchestra, before returning to the curse in
the coda.

C.F.

Giuseppe Verdi when he was working
at Rigoletto. Photo
(Milan, Museo Teatrale alla Scala).

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THE THEATRE AND THE CRITICISM TO POWER

Caterina Murino
Courtisans! Démons! Race damnée!
C’est donc vrai qu’ils m’ont pris ma fille, ces
bandits!
Une femme, à leurs yeux, ce n’est rien, je vous dis!
En est-il parmi vous un seul qui me démente?
Rendez-la-moi!
Tous ensemble contre moi! dix contre un!
Base courtiers! Demons! Fawning race accurst!
A maiden’s honour is to you as nought …
Not one amongst ye give me back the lie.
‘Tis true, base robbers!
All! All combined against me! ten to one!
Give me back my child!
My only treasure – all that I possess!
Lines from Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo,
translated by Frederick L. Slous as The King’s
Diversion. A political, troublesome, violent drama
adapted by Verdi for his Rigoletto, in spite of the
fact that it had been censured and banned.
Because theatre is freedom – of word, criticism,
and thought.
Victor Hugo, Le roi s’amuse, 1832

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Giuseppe Verdi Rigoletto
Rigoletto Courtiers, vile, damnable rabble,
how much were you paid for my treasure?
Rigoletto There’s nothing you won’t do for money,
but my daughter is beyond any price.
Cortigiani, vil razza dannata Give her back, or this hand, though
per qual prezzo vendeste il mio bene?
A voi nulla per l’oro sconviene, [unarmed,
ma mia figlia è impagabil tesor. will prove a dread weapon indeed.
La rendete... o se pur disarmata, A man will fear nothing on earth
questa man per voi fora cruenta; when defending his children’s honour.
nulla in terra più l’uomo paventa, Assassins, open that door!
se dei figli difende l’onor. Ah! You’re all against me!
Quella porta, assassini, assassini, All against me!
m’aprite, la porta, la porta, Then I’ll weep. Marullo, my lord,
assassini, m’aprite! you whose soul is as gentle as your heart,
Ah! Voi tutti a me contro venite! tell me, where have they hidden her?
Tutti contra me! Ah!... She’s in there, isn’t she? You don’t answer…
Ebben, piango... Marullo... signore, Alas! My lords, forgive me, have pity!
tu ch’hai l’alma gentil come il core, Give an old man back his daughter!
dimmi tu dove l’hanno nascosta! To give her back can cost you nothing now,
Marullo... signore, but to me my daughter is everything.
dimmi tu dove l’hanno nascosta! My lords, forgive me, have pity!
È là? Non è vero? È là? Give me my daughter back,
Non è vero? È là, non è vero?... to me my daughter is everything.
Tu taci! Ohimè! My lords, forgive me, have pity!
Miei signori, perdono, pietate...
al vegliardo la figlia ridate... Cortigiani, vil razza dannata
ridonarla a voi nulla ora costa,
a voi nulla ora costa, tutto, In Act II, Rigoletto’s invective Cortigiani,
tutto al mondo è tal figlia per me. vil razza dannata hurled at the Courtiers
Signori, perdon, perdono, pietà; who had kidnapped Gilda the night before,
ridate a me la figlia, is expressed in an aria eluding any
tutto al mondo è tal figlia per me, conventional scheme. It is shaped into three
ridate a me la figlia, parts that trace out the psychological
tutto al mondo ell’è per me. transformation of the protagonist: initially
Pietà, pietà, signori, the imprecations carved with violent
pietà, signori, pietà. declamatory force against the insistent
accompaniment of the strings, then the
desperate lament articulated in verbal and
orchestral fragmentation, and finally the
prayer, with the eloquent plea for pity
sustained by the English horn and cello,
expressing the pain of a father who only
wants to have his daughter back.

C. F.

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