As received: Teatro Massimo is inaugurating its 2013 season with a new, exciting project: in the celebratory bicentennial year of the birth of richard Wagner, the theatre will stage Der ring des Nibelungen. For the first time in its history, the Teatro Massimo is staging a new production of Wagner’s masterpiece entirely within the same season. This project, begun over two years ago, marks the fulfilment of the theatre management’s ambitious strategy of widening its artistic goals while increasing productive capacities.
The Ring will be staged by Graham Vick – one of the most important directors working in musical theater today and with a special rapport with Teatro Massimo – and designed by Richard Hudson. These two artists are intent on creating a production idea which finds its inspiration in the space, architecture and stage itself of the Teatro Massimo. Musically, the rich universe of Wagner’s masterpiece will finds its leader in young Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen. And so Palermo, already a special place to many German artists, once again hosts the work of Wagner in this project devoted to the grandest of his musical and theatrical creations.
It is our hope that Teatro Massimo’s bicentennial Ring production, in view of its special context in the international panorama of the 2013 celebrations, can serve as a stimulus for all passionate Wagnerites to visit Palermo. And lastly, we invite all those who come – in those same months in which the composer himself visited and sojourned in the city – to nourish themselves of that magical energy one breathes in the land «where the lemons bloom».
Richard Wagner in Palermo
quoted from a text by Ignazio Ciotti
Teatro Massimo, 1939 Opera Season
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| Pietari Inkinen |
After taking up lodgings on the first floor of “Hotel des Palmes”, Richard Wagner swiftly set himself to work. However, as the task at hand required the utmost concentration, he soon chose to leave the hotel in favor an apartment distant from the city center accepting, after repeated offers, the Prince of Gangi’s invitation to stay at the family villa at Porrazzi.
In this hospitable residence, Wagner spent a period of calm and well being, coming into contact with the elite of the Palermo society.
At the time he also took to visiting the city, its surroundings and ancient monuments. Beholding the Duomo of Monreale, Wagner stopped and exclaimed: «What great minds of man could have designed such a marvel!». Wagner also admired the Palermo Cathedral and the Cappella Palatina which he defined «one of the most beautiful churches in the world». Wagner was often sighted, enveloped in his great cloak and donning his velvet cap, on long walks at the Foro Italico, where from time to time he would halt and gaze, in still rapture, at the blue immensity of the Mediterranean sea.
Cast:
Conductor Pietari Inkinen
Director Graham Vick
Scene & costume Designs Richard Hudson
Mime movements Ron Howell
Lighting Designs Giuseppe Di Iorio
DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN
January 22, 24, 27, 29, 31, 2013
Das Rheingold
(The Rhine Gold)
MAIN CHARACTERS
Wotan Franz Hawlata
Loge Will Hartmann
Alberich Sergei Leiferkus
Mime Robert Brubaker
Fasolt Keel Watson
Fafner Magne Fremmerlid
Fricka Anna Maria Chiuri
Erda Ronnita Miller
February 21, 24, 27 febbraio, March 1 and 3, 2013
Die Walküre
(The Valkyrie)
MAIN CHARACTERS
Sigmund Simon O’Neill
Sieglinde Ausrine Stundyte
Wotan Franz Hawlata
Brünnhilde Lise Lindstrom
Fricka Anna Maria Chiuri
October 19, 22, 24, 27, 30, 2013
Siegfried
MAIN CHARACTERS
Siegfried Christian Voigt
Mime Robert Brubaker
Der Wanderer Samuel Youn
Alberich Sergei Leiferkus
Fafner Magne Fremmerlid
Erda Ronnita Miller
Brünnhilde Lise Lindstrom
November 23, 26, 29, December 1 and 4, 2013
Götterdämmerung
(Twilight of the Gods)
MAIN CHARACTERS
Siegfried Christian Voigt
Brünnhilde Lise Lindstrom
Gunther Eric Shannon Greene
Gutrune Ausrine Stundyte
Alberich Sergei Leiferkus
