Luca MOSCA (b.1957)

Signor Goldini

Barbara Hannigan (Despina), Alda Caiello (L’anzolo Rafael), Cristina Zavalloni (Mirandolina), Sara Mingardo (Desdemona), Michael Bennett (Arlecchino), Chris Ziegler (Baffo), Roberto Abbondanza (Goldoni), Michael Leibundgut (Othello)
Conductor Andrea Molino
Director Davide Livermore

Orchestra and chorus of Teatro La Fenice

Teatro La Fenice, Venice. September 21st – 29th, 2007


A WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING commissioned by the Teatro La Fenice to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Venetian playwright and librettist Carlo Goldini.

Melega’s libretto is written in English, a language which offers greater opportunity for plays on words and whose rhythmic nature better suits Mosca’s music.

The opera incorporates Shakespearean tragedies and comedies set in the Veneto, namely Othello, Romeo & Juliet, The Merchant of Venice and Two Gentlemen of Verona. Shakespeare himself appears as a character in the opera, along with characters from Goldini’s plays and Mozart’s Despina.

One of the very few contemporary operas being staged in Italy, signaling something of a revival of the operatic world.