Opera Barga: Alessandro Scarlatti’s first opera
Alessandro Scarlatti’s first opera was performed in Rome during the Carnival of 1679. At the time Pope Innocence XI had banned all theatrical entertainment during the Carnival period, which meant that the performance had to take place almost secretly at the home of the librettist Domenico Filippo Contini, only to be transferred to the Theatre of the Carmelite College at the behest of Queen Cristina of Sweden (and the Cardinals who wished to attend were smuggled in through the ladies entrance).
The opera was very well received and subsequently performed in Naples, Bologna, Florence and Vienna as well as many other venues.
The plot revolves around the love between two young shepherds, Clori and Eurillo, whose lover’s tiffs are heightened by the meddling of Clori’s younger sister Lisetta, who is also keen to enjoy lover’s prerogatives and has a fancy for Eurillo, but even more so by the appearance of Armindo, whom we discover in the end to be Eurillo’s long lost identical twin. This leads to a series of very “equivocal” and often very entertaining situations which lead up to a typically forced (and by no means conclusive) “happy ending”.
Conductor – Carlo Ipata, Director Dagny Müller,
Sets Nicolas Bovey, Costumes – Kerry Bell,
Lighting – Riccardo Tonelli
Cast: Alberto Allegrezza, Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli, Matteo Mezzaro, Manuela Ranno
Orchestra Auser Musici
Coproduction Opera Barga - Auser Musici