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Press Review
“Piccola Lirica: top ten must do must see in Italy”
(The Independent, London 15 April 2007)
"...it was charming, touching... I proved a immediacy and a little genuine pathos..."
(The New York Times,13 Novembre 2007)
"Italy has a new – short – twist on a centuries-old art form. A small, historic theater in Rome was having a hard time surviving when it turned to trills and arias to help keep it afloat: opera. But not the usual hours-long, mega-productions. Megan Williams visited the Piccolo Teatro Lirico in the city’s historic center and has this report.In a small theatre in Rome, the doomed Cavaradossi sings his final farewell to his beloved Tosca in Giacomo Puccini’s popular opera. Unlike most opera, though, in this production, you can not only hear the anguish, but see it up close on the singers’ faces.The audience is up close, because the theater is so small. In fact — everything about the production is pocket-sized. Here at Rome’s Piccolo Teatro Lirico they call it “opera in pillole.”Dustin: “Opera in pillole…How do you translate that? Encapsulated operas… done in miniature with wonderfully programmed keyboards and that way can fit big orchestra in small space.”Amalia Dustin is the mezzo-soprano who for the past two seasons has been singing the role of servant Suzuki in the other Puccini opera put on here. Madame Butterfly. An abridged Butterfly, that is. Shortened from almost four hours to less than two. There’s also no orchestra. The theatre, with less than 200 seats, is just too tiny to fit one in. It also can’t afford it.There is a conductor, though. One who carefully points her baton at the four young musicians keying away on synthesizers. They’re supposed to replicate a 60-piece orchestra... Despite some initial reservations, this 32-year-old opera enthusiast from Naples loved this version of Madam Butterfly. Especially the beautiful images projected on stage to make up for the usual props. She says it was hard listening to the synthesizers at first, but once the singing began, it was beautiful. She also says it was impressive they managed to create something that feels so grandiose in such a small space.Another member of the audience is a tourist from California. She says she’s not an opera fan. But the intimacy of Butterfly won her over. “I think it takes some getting used to because it’s so small and you’re used to opera being big, but once used to it more pleasurable. You feel closer to the performers.”She also didn’t mind the brevity.“The length was great. I prefer a shorter performance myself. Conductor Elisabettadel Buono says pocket opera isn’t meant to replace the real thing, but rather appeal to a segment of the public that doesn’t have the money – or patience — for full operas. del Buono: “It’s different now. A hundred years ago people spent the whole day at the opera. Times have changed and our attention spans are shorter. But for those who want the full opera experience, there are still plenty of options around.”So, the Piccolo Teatro Lirico doesn’t aim to replace the real thing. But it’s discovered that its shorter, leaner version of opera has plenty of fans too".
(
The World - Megan Williams)
“It’s born in the heart of Rome a little monument to opera …” (
Il Giornale - Nicoletta Campanella)
“The idea to offer to the public the chance to enjoy our vast repertoire, adapting it for an easier listening that will though respect the fundamentals of the work as it was created” (
Landa Ketoff - La Repubblica, march 2007)
"It is no longer an experiment. It has being going on for nearly ten years. It has been hardly noticed by the Italian press, but reported on by The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Independent, La Tempestad, Expension Entorno, Actual and various German and Far Eastern (mostly Japanese and Korean) newspapers and magazines. Early in 2009, it was studied in depth by Suguru Agata, Segretary General of the Japan Electronic Keyboard Society; as a result, it has been includ the research and experimental lyric opera theatres under review and monitoring upon by the Open Research Center Project of the Showa Music University. In 2010, two of its productions will be seen at the Shanghai International Expo and at the Korean Chamber Opera Festival.
It is of interest to our readers for two reasons: firstly, it shows how low cost or budget opera can use modern technology -- very important information for opera houses in comparatively small towns as well as for touring companies; secondly, it provides indications to tourists visiting Rome for alternative ways to have an opera evening when the Teatro dell'Opera is not 'in season' or is 'sold out'. Although the most relevant aspect shows how to use technology to reduce costs, opera goers in Rome should to avoid falling into many well advertised traps: performances in churches and Renaissance palaces by occasionally and often carelessly assembled groups of amateurs : often their quality is abysmal.Operas are often abridged by removing scenes with many singers and large choruses; also at the Bregenz Festival, operas are cut to fit one single stage set and not more than a two hour performance. At Bregenz, voices and orchestra are electronically amplified. However, there should be no compromise in quality, viz voices, acting orchestra, staging and alike (including dancing in their Carmen). And, of course, no amplification"
( Music & Vision - Patrik Pen).
“Piccola Lirica” is the young yard of the opera created to build in a popular context some of the major expressions of classical music and music drama of the most famous authors. The formula is original, brilliant, audacious for its programming choices as well as for the musical, directing and dramaturgical redefining of the scores…” (
Roberto Lacarbonara - Eventi culturali, march 2007)
“Who said that there is a sphere of intangibility, a regal aura that protect specific spaces of art? Rossana Siclari and her Piccola Lirica demonstrate the exact contrary, and, facing rigors and conventions, in the Flaiano Theatre, reveal to the public that an approach to the high spheres is possible” (
Domitilla Pirro – teatroteatro.it, march 2007)
“The model used is the one for the Shakespearian “pocket size” shows in the London theatres, with the addition of new technologies(
Gasponi – Il Messaggero, april 6, 2007)
“A new, interesting way to propose opera… a lively formula that also involves public not usually attending opera theatres… a rare chance for young and promising voices that have very few chances to compete with leading roles.” (
Osservatore Romano – Marcello Filotei)
“…sitting on the stall of theatre with perfect acoustics. This is the Flaiano, with ease approaching to great music ” (
Avvenimenti)
“Someone finally dared doing what was desired by many for a long time, though not being able to ask: a spectacular proposal pointed on opera, with all warranties of a qualified performance and a cultural layout, without all those obstacles that unfortunately are commonly to a normal enjoyment of the music drama …” (
G. Carioti – Distampa Agency)
“Just take on of the most famous operas, review the text, adapt the staging to a theatre with two hundred seats – not forgetting the history and the music score – spread on this technical innovations and sparkling directive solutions, optimize the timing and mix with the perfect acoustics of the Flaiano Theatre and with the inborn talent of artists …” (
Priscilla Del Ninno - Il Secolo)
“A new and curious adaptation in a miniature edition. For the first time in an opera of the main repertory a medium orchestra has worked on the fusion of traditional instruments with the use of modern informatics-musical technologies” (
Tonino Scaroni – Il Tempo)
“It is, for some reasons, a return to the way operas were put in action during the seventeenth or the eighteenth century: it was selected a successful title and then dismantled and reassembled according to the resources of each theatre …Ladies and gentlemen, this is the way to do in order
not to lose a scenic form that seems to pertain only to the past.” (
Giuseppe Pennisi – Liberal)
“We find it an extraordinary initiative born in a famous little theatre of Rome, the Flaiano… all history of an opera is performed with theatrical clearness and the most important musical part is preserved …a brilliant idea” (
Erasmo – Daniele Carioti)
“This perspective is topical and will indicate a turning point in the history of the opera performances. The opera needs to exit its huge theatres, where a seat costs a fortune, and the young people, used to the foregrounds of cinema and television, can’t even distinguish the faces of singers, as they are very far from the stage and from the orchestra. The opera must slim itself, win back the privacy of the small theatres”. (
Maestro Gian Carlo Menotti, composer and founder of the Two Worlds Festival)
“Attention. There’s an opera in 90 minutes at the Flaiano Theatre that should be loved by all lovers of people’s art and to all families looking for refined and tasty entertainment, just to associate music drama to high-tech. A truly theatrical experiment…” (
Rodolfo di Giammarco- La Repubblica)
“A new, interesting way to propose opera… a lively formula that also involves public not usually attending opera theatres… a rare chance for young and promising voices that have very few chances to compete with leading roles.” (
Osservatore Romano – Marcello Filotei)
“A space that opens a new identity. With a new production that wants to simplify opera with audacious directive solutions and with matrimonies within disciplines, in order to let opera be understood to the public. The score is also given to sophisticated technological systems …” (
Elle- Elsa Airoldi)
“Someone finally dared doing what was desired by many for a long time, though not being able to ask: a spectacular proposal pointed on opera, with all warranties of a qualified performance and a cultural layout, without all those obstacles that unfortunately are commonly to a normal enjoyment of the music drama …” (
G. Carioti – Distampa Agency)
“If Giuseppe Verdi was still alive he would have enjoyed the bold and truly appreciated scenic performance of the Piccola Lirica… we hope it won’t be an isolated episode, but just the inspiration of many creative and lucky situations yet to come …”(
Paola Aspri – Italia Sera)
“Piccola Lirica is the precious concentrate of a great opera performance that wants to discredit the prejudice that needs opera linked with gigantic and unapproachable productions …” (
Pier Francesco Borgia - Il Giornale)
“A new and curious adaptation in a miniature edition. For the first time in an opera of the main repertory a medium orchestra has worked on the fusion of traditional instruments with the use of modern informatics-musical technologies” (
Tonino Scaroni – Il Tempo)
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