Tosca
Opera by Giacomo Puccini (1792-1868)
Greek Theatre, 9,30pm – Saturday 9th, Monday 11th and Wednesday 13th 2014
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou’s 1887 French-language dramatic play, La Tosca, is a melodramatic piece set in Rome in June 1800, with the Kingdom of Naples’s control of Rome threatened by Napoleon’s invasion of Italy. It contains depictions of torture, murder and suicide, as well as some of Puccini’s best-known lyrical arias, and has inspired memorable performances from many of opera’s leading singers. The dramatic force of Tosca and its characters continues to fascinate both performers and audiences, and the work remains one of the most frequently performed operas.
Stage Director & Set Designer: Enrico Castiglione
PRICES FROM TODAY TO JANUARY 31st
Stalls (Parterre): € 75,00
Gallery: € 50,50
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 38,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 18,00
PRICES FROM FEBRUARY 1st TO FEBRUARY 28th
Stalls (Parterre): € 85,00
Gallery: € 55,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 45,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 24,00
PRICES FROM MRCH 1st TO APRIL 30th
Stalls (Parterre): € 95,00
Gallery: € 63,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 50,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 30,00 P
RICES FROM MAY 1st TO JUNE 30th
Stalls (Parterre): € 95,00
Gallery: € 70,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 55,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 33,00
PRICES FROM JULY 1st TO EVENT
Stalls (Parterre): € 105,00
Gallery: € 75,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 60,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 38,00
Tickets on boxol.it (August 9, August 11, August 13) and ticketone.com (prices slightly different)
Ticket Office in Taormina: +39 0942.628730
SYNOPSIS
In the church of S Andrea della Valle, the fugitive Angelotti takes refuge in a private chapel. The painter Cavaradossi returns to the canvas he is painting, a picture of Mary Magdalene, influenced by the features of his beloved Tosca and by a woman he has often seen in the church. The sacristan complains of the trouble Cavaradossi gives him. As he leaves, Angelotti emerges from hiding, explaining that he has escaped from imprisonment in the Castel Sant’Angelo. The voice of Tosca is heard and Angelotti hides again. Tosca is jealous of what she thinks may have been an assignation with another woman but agrees to meet her lover after her evening performance. The church fills for a celebration of a supposed victory over Napoleon and Baron Scarpia and his agents seek for signs of Angelotti, suspicion falling on Cavaradossi as a possible accomplice. Scarpia succeeds now in arousing further jealousy in Tosca, who has returned, showing her a fan found in the chapel, belonging, in fact, to Angelotti’s sister. Scarpia orders his men to follow Tosca, when she leaves, as a victory Te Deum is sung. In Scarpia’s apartment the sound is heard of an entertainment being given below for Queen Caroline, dancing and a performance by Tosca. Cavaradossi has been arrested and is interrogated and, when Tosca comes in, tortured in the next room, to elicit information from her. She betrays Angelotti’s hiding-place at the well in the garden of Cavaradossi’s villa. The painter is to be shot at dawn, but can be saved if Tosca will give in to Scarpia’s demands on her. She pretends to agree and when he has signed a safe-conduct she kills him. In the third act, at Castel Sant’Angelo, Cavaradossi prepares for death, as dawn draws near. Tosca is brought in and, left alone with him, explains how there is to be a mock-execution, after which they can escape together. In the event Scarpia has his revenge. His orders did not countermand the execution and Cavaradossi is shot. When Tosca realises that he is dead, she leaps from the battlements to her own death, while Scarpia’s men draw threateningly near, having discovered their master’s body.
Tosca remains a major work in operatic repertoire, although subject to relentlessly hostile criticism on the grounds of the brutal coarseness of its plot. It is, in fact, dramatically convincing, up to the moment of final irony. Cavaradossi is entrusted with his first moving aria in the opening act, Recondita armonia (Secret harmony), when he contrasts the dark-haired beauty of Tosca with the fair- haired stranger he has seen in the church, both combined in his painting. Cavaradossi’s other great aria comes in the third act, as he prepares for death. In E lucevan le stelle (And the stars shone) he regrets his coming execution and parting from Tosca. The rôle of Tosca has a strong dramatic appeal. Her best known aria is Vissi d’arte (I have lived for art), as she despairs at the predicament that Scarpia has posed for her.
(source: www.naxos.com)
Sept. 6 – Zaira
Opera by Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
Saturday September 6th 2014 – Taormina Greek Theatre, 9.30pm
Zaira is a tragedia lirica, or tragic opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini set to a libretto by Felice Romani which was based on Voltaire’s 1732 tragedy, Zaïre. The story takes place in the time of the Crusades and the opera’s plot involves the heroine, Zaira, struggling between her Christian faith and her love for Orosmane, the Muslim Sultan of Jerusalem.
PRICES FROM TODAY TO FEBRUARY 28th
Stalls (Parterre): € 85,00
Gallery: € 55,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 45,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 24,00
PRICES FROM MARCH 1st TO APRIL 30th
Stalls (Parterre): € 95,00
Gallery: € 63,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 50,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 30,00
PRICES FROM MAY 1st TO JUNE 30th
Stalls (Parterre): € 95,00
Gallery: € 70,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 55,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 33,00
PRICES FROM JULY 1st TO EVENT
Stalls (Parterre): € 105,00
Gallery: € 75,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 60,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 38,00
Tickets on ctbox.it and ticketone.com (prices slightly different)
Ticket Office in Taormina: +39 0942.628730
SYNOPSIS
Act I
A magnificent gallery leading into the Harem; underground hall leading into the prisons; the inside of the Harem.
The beautiful slave Zaira is about to marry Orosmane, the Sultan of Jerusalem; there is a celebration in the harem, and odalisks and eunuchs dance and sing in his honor. The vizier Corasmino sees the Sultan’s decision to marry a Christian woman as an insult to Koranic law, especially at a time when their French enemies are about to descend on them; he therefore intends to prevent the wedding. Fatima, another slave in the harem, asks Zaira how she could have forgotten France and the French warrior who swore to free her, and renounced her Christian faith: but Zaira reminds her that she has had no news of that warrior since he returned to France, and that she now loves Orosmane, who loves her in return . Meanwhile the French knight Nerestano arrives at the Sultan’s court with the intention freeing Zaira: he was himself a prisoner of Orosmane but he was released: he learns however that the woman now loves Orosmane and has chosen the Muslim faith. and that the Sultan intends to release only the French knights who are still in his prisons but neither Zaira nor old Lusignano, a prince descended from the ancient Christian kings of Jerusalem and therefore hated by the Muslims. When they learn this, the prisoners decide to forego their freedom and accept the same fate as Lusignano. Zaira appears with Lusignano, whose freedom she has managed to obtain from Orosmane. By a necklace and a scar Lusignano recognizes Zaira and Nerestano as his daughter and son, who survived the massacre of Cesarea as children and were enslaved by the Muslims. When he discovers that Zaira has renounced her faith and is about in marry Orosmane, he orders her to repent and re-embrace Christianity: Zaira swears that she will do so.
Corasmino alerts the Sultan to the dangers which could arise from Lusignano return to Europe, but Orosmane does not want to refuse Zaira’s request. Meanwhile Nerestano in his turn attempts to persuade Zaira to end her liaison with the hated Sultan, reminding her that her old father is about to die of grief. Zaira does not wish to betray her love and Orosmane’s trust, but in the end she embraces her brother and decides to return to the Christian faith. The Sultan arrives and. when Zaira requests a postponement of the wedding, he suspects that Nerestano is a seducer and orders him. to leave the court.
Act II
Zaira’s rooms; a remote place near the quarters of the French knights; a hall of the Harem; a remote part of the Harem gardens.
Fatima encourages Zaira to forget Orosmane, who is so indignant at Zaira’s refusal that he wants to send her back among the slaves in the harem and find a woman more worthy of his love. Faced with Zaira’s tears, he asks for an explanation which she, bound by her promise to her brother, cannot give him at that moment. Orosmane agrees to wait one more day. Lusignano has died, and Nerestano blames his sister. The French knights ask Orosmane to postpone their departure so that they can comply with Lusignano’s wish to be buried in that land; the Sultan, out of love for Zaira, grants the request and pays no heed to warnings from Corasmino, who suspects that the request conceals a trick and who shows him a message in which Nerestano asks Zaira to meet him secretly. Orosmane is still doubtful and decides to test her: he will however have the secret message delivered to her. Zaira reads her brother’s letter and is torn between torment at having to betray the trust of her beloved and grief over her father’s death, for which she feels guilty. She faints into Fatima’s arms.
In a remote part of the harem gardens Orosmane and Corasmino are waiting to see if Zaira will go to the appointment with Nerestano. The pair arrive and Orosmane, seeing them ready to flee and believing them to be lovers, fatally wounds Zaira. At the revelation that they are brother and sister, he is overcome with grief and kills himself.
(source: www.operatoday.com)
August 23 – Massimo Ranieri
Massimo Ranieri
Sogno e son desto
Saturday August 23rd 2014 – Taormina Greek Theatre, 9.30pm
Massimo Ranieri (born in Naples as Giovanni Calone in 1951), is an Italian pop singer, film and stage actor.
He’s always being singing since he was a boy but it is in 1969 he really became successful and became a teen idol making all the young girls scream for him, when he sang “O Sole Mio” on live TV.
Tickets on boxol.it and ticketone.it
Stalls (Parterre): € 69,00
Gallery: € 69,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 49,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 35,00
More Info Taormina Arte >> info@taormina-arte.com – tel. +39 0942 21142
August 18 – Pintus
PINTUS
“50 shades of … Pintus”
Taormina Greek Theatre – August 18th 2014, 9.30pm
Angelo Pintus is an Italian comic actor (born 1975) who since 2009 is part of the cast in “Colorado”, a popular Italian comedy TV series.
Tickets on boxol.it and ticketone.it
Stalls (Parterre) and Galley: € 40,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 30,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 20,00
More info: www.angelopintus.com
Aug. 9/11/13 – Tosca
Opera by Giacomo Puccini (1792-1868)
Greek Theatre, 9,30pm – Saturday 9th, Monday 11th and Wednesday 13th 2014
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou’s 1887 French-language dramatic play, La Tosca, is a melodramatic piece set in Rome in June 1800, with the Kingdom of Naples’s control of Rome threatened by Napoleon’s invasion of Italy. It contains depictions of torture, murder and suicide, as well as some of Puccini’s best-known lyrical arias, and has inspired memorable performances from many of opera’s leading singers. The dramatic force of Tosca and its characters continues to fascinate both performers and audiences, and the work remains one of the most frequently performed operas.
Stage Director & Set Designer: Enrico Castiglione
PRICES FROM TODAY TO JANUARY 31st
Stalls (Parterre): € 75,00
Gallery: € 50,50
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 38,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 18,00
PRICES FROM FEBRUARY 1st TO FEBRUARY 28th
Stalls (Parterre): € 85,00
Gallery: € 55,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 45,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 24,00
PRICES FROM MRCH 1st TO APRIL 30th
Stalls (Parterre): € 95,00
Gallery: € 63,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 50,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 30,00 P
RICES FROM MAY 1st TO JUNE 30th
Stalls (Parterre): € 95,00
Gallery: € 70,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 55,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 33,00
PRICES FROM JULY 1st TO EVENT
Stalls (Parterre): € 105,00
Gallery: € 75,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 60,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 38,00
Tickets on boxol.it (August 9, August 11, August 13) and ticketone.com (prices slightly different)
Ticket Office in Taormina: +39 0942.628730
SYNOPSIS
In the church of S Andrea della Valle, the fugitive Angelotti takes refuge in a private chapel. The painter Cavaradossi returns to the canvas he is painting, a picture of Mary Magdalene, influenced by the features of his beloved Tosca and by a woman he has often seen in the church. The sacristan complains of the trouble Cavaradossi gives him. As he leaves, Angelotti emerges from hiding, explaining that he has escaped from imprisonment in the Castel Sant’Angelo. The voice of Tosca is heard and Angelotti hides again. Tosca is jealous of what she thinks may have been an assignation with another woman but agrees to meet her lover after her evening performance. The church fills for a celebration of a supposed victory over Napoleon and Baron Scarpia and his agents seek for signs of Angelotti, suspicion falling on Cavaradossi as a possible accomplice. Scarpia succeeds now in arousing further jealousy in Tosca, who has returned, showing her a fan found in the chapel, belonging, in fact, to Angelotti’s sister. Scarpia orders his men to follow Tosca, when she leaves, as a victory Te Deum is sung. In Scarpia’s apartment the sound is heard of an entertainment being given below for Queen Caroline, dancing and a performance by Tosca. Cavaradossi has been arrested and is interrogated and, when Tosca comes in, tortured in the next room, to elicit information from her. She betrays Angelotti’s hiding-place at the well in the garden of Cavaradossi’s villa. The painter is to be shot at dawn, but can be saved if Tosca will give in to Scarpia’s demands on her. She pretends to agree and when he has signed a safe-conduct she kills him. In the third act, at Castel Sant’Angelo, Cavaradossi prepares for death, as dawn draws near. Tosca is brought in and, left alone with him, explains how there is to be a mock-execution, after which they can escape together. In the event Scarpia has his revenge. His orders did not countermand the execution and Cavaradossi is shot. When Tosca realises that he is dead, she leaps from the battlements to her own death, while Scarpia’s men draw threateningly near, having discovered their master’s body.
Tosca remains a major work in operatic repertoire, although subject to relentlessly hostile criticism on the grounds of the brutal coarseness of its plot. It is, in fact, dramatically convincing, up to the moment of final irony. Cavaradossi is entrusted with his first moving aria in the opening act, Recondita armonia (Secret harmony), when he contrasts the dark-haired beauty of Tosca with the fair- haired stranger he has seen in the church, both combined in his painting. Cavaradossi’s other great aria comes in the third act, as he prepares for death. In E lucevan le stelle (And the stars shone) he regrets his coming execution and parting from Tosca. The rôle of Tosca has a strong dramatic appeal. Her best known aria is Vissi d’arte (I have lived for art), as she despairs at the predicament that Scarpia has posed for her.
(source: www.naxos.com)
August 2 and 4 – Rustican Chivalry
Opera by Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Taormina Greek Theatre, 9.30pm
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. It is the first and best known Mascagni’s works. Its success has been phenomenal from its first performance in the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on May 17, 1890 until the present day. At the time of Mascagni’s death in 1945, the opera had been performed more than 14,000 times in Italy alone.
“The Teatro Illustrato invites young Italian musicians to participate in a new competition for a one-act opera.” In 1888, the publisher Sonzogno launched its second competition for young Italian composers. The winner was Pietro Mascagni with Cavalleria rusticana, and so it was that this story of an honour killing in a Sicilian village in the late nineteenth century, from a short story of the same name by Verga, entered the operatic canon. Owing to the intense dramatic power of the score and libretto, the opera quickly became recognised as a manifesto of Italian verism. (Source: www.symphonyspace.org)
Stage Director & Set Designer: Enrico Castiglione
PRICES FROM TODAY TO JANUARY 31st
Stalls (Parterre): € 75,00
Gallery: € 50,50
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 38,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 18,00
PRICES FROM FEBRUARY 1st TO FEBRUARY 28th
Stalls (Parterre): € 85,00
Gallery: € 55,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 45,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 24,00
PRICES FROM MRCH 1st TO APRIL 30th
Stalls (Parterre): € 95,00
Gallery: € 63,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 50,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 30,00
PRICES FROM MAY 1st TO JUNE 30th
Stalls (Parterre): € 95,00
Gallery: € 70,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 55,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 33,00
PRICES FROM JULY 1st TO EVENT
Stalls (Parterre): € 105,00
Gallery: € 75,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 60,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 38,00
Tickets on boxol.it and ticketone.com (prices slightly different)
Ticket Office in Taormina: +39 0942.628730
SYNOPSIS
A Sicilian village, c. 1890. Early on Easter morning, Turiddu sings about his former beloved, Lola, now the wife of a wine carter, Alfio. As the town stirs, Santuzza, Turiddu’s neglected sweetheart, comes looking for the handsome youth at the tavern of his mother, Lucia. The girl reveals she has been excommunicated, but before she can explain why, Alfio comes by with friends, boasting about his pretty young wife. A religious procession fills the square and enters the church for mass, leaving Santuzza to tell Mamma Lucia that Turiddu has taken up with Lola again. When the old woman has gone to mass, Santuzza confronts Turiddu with his betrayal. Lola passes by, and Turiddu follows her into church. Santuzza hurls a curse after him, then, consumed by jealousy, tells Alfio of Lola’s infidelity. Santuzza immediately feels remorse, but the damage is done.
When the mass ends, Turiddu and the villagers drink wine, after which Alfio insults Turiddu, who accepts a challenge to duel with knives in a nearby orchard. He begs his mother to take care of Santuzza if he does not return. As Mamma Lucia and Santuzza wait anxiously, shouts rise in the distance. A woman stumbles in crying Turiddu has been killed. (Source: http://www.metoperafamily.org/)
July 27 – James Blunt
James Blunt
July 27th 2014 – Taormina Greek Theatre, 9,30pm
M O R E I N F O S O O N A V A I L A B L E !
Stalls (Parterre): € 90,00
Gallery: € 75,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 60,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 45,00
Tickets on ticketone.it ctbox.it
Ticket Office in Taormina: +39 0942.628730
Jul 26 – Emma
EMMA LIMITED EDITION
Greek Theatre, Saturday July 26th 2014 – 9.30pm
Emma Marrone (born 1984 in Florence) is an Italian pop/rock singer. She will represent Italy at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “La mia città”.
Tickets on ticketone.it
Stalls (Parterre): € 69,00
Gallery: € 63,25
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 57,50
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 36,80
Ticket Office in Taormina @ Taormina Arte:
Tel. 0039 0942 21142
info@taormina-arte.com
July 25 – Giorgia
Giorgia
“Senza Paura” Tour
Greek Theatre, July 25th 2014 – 9.30pm
Giorgia (born 26 April 1971) is an Italian singer, song-writer, musician, record producer and radio host, known for her soulful voice, which is aided by a wide vocal range, high belting register and great vocal abilities. She is one of the most iconic and famous Italian singers. She has released ten studio albums, which all enjoyed good commercial success in Italy. Giorgia has reached a good notoriety in Europe and a moderate success in Canada and Latin America.
For her voice’s qualities she has been compared to Whitney Houston and Mina, and has been defined “fourth better voice in the world”.
Watch on youtube: Giorgia – Senza Paura
Tickets on boxol.it
Stalls (Parterre): € 80,00
Gallery: € 65,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 50,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 37,00
Ticket Office in Taormina:
Taormina Arte >> info@taormina-arte.com – tel. +39 0942 21142 / 0942.628730
July 24 – Simple Minds
Simple Minds
The Greatest Hits Live
July 24th 2014 – Greek Theatre, 9.30pm
The Simple Minds celebrate their career with a world tour whose first date is in Taormina where the singer, Jim Kerr, owns some properties and where he spends some time every year.
Tickets on boxol.it and ticketone.it
Stalls (Parterre): € 57,50
Gallery: € 46,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 34,50
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 28,75
Ticket Office in Taormina:
Taormina Arte >> info@taormina-arte.com – tel. +39 0942 21142
July 22 and 23 – Negramaro
Negramaro
Taormina Greek Theatre,
Saturday July 22nd AND Sunday July 23rd 2014 – 9.30pm
TWO DATES !
Negramaro is an Italian pop band formed in 1999 and successful since 2005. Their name stems from Negroamaro, a wine produced in their native region, Salento (Pulia).
Members of the group are: Giuliano Sangiorgi (voice and guitars); Emanuele Spedicato (guitars); Ermanno Carlà (bass); Danilo Tasco (drums); Andrea Mariano (piano and synths); Andrea De Rocco (sampler).
After years spent in the Italian alternative market, they became famous in 2005 thanks to the Festival di Sanremo. the national Italian song festival held annually in the city of Sanremo and consisting of a competition amongst previously unreleased songs.
CONCERT OF SATURDAY 22 JULY >>>> boxol.it and ticketone.it
CONCERT OF SUNDAY 23 JULY >>>> boxol.it and ticketone.it
Stalls (Parterre): € 75,00
Gallery: € 65,00
Upper circle (numbered seats): € 55,00
Upper circle (non-numbered seats): € 45,00
More Info @ Taormina Arte:
Tel. 0039 0942 21142
info@taormina-arte.com