Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini will be on the program at the Florence Opera this spring.

FLORENCE PROGRAM – MAGGIO MUSICALE FIORENTINO – first months of 2014

FLORENZE/ITALY: The new season of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino will start at the end of January 2014, and will go on until next April

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The Foundation is going through a very difficult time for lack of money, so nothing is sure about the program of next Maggio Musicale, the most important music event in Florence, that this year reaches its 77th edition (it was founded in 1933) and that should start next 30th April.

By Fabio Bardelli

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–In the first months of the year there will be two operas on stage: Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi and Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini.

Nabucco will have an interesting cast under Renato Palumbo‘s baton: in the main role will alternate Slovack baritone Dalibor Jenis and Italian veteran Leo Nucci, whose career is still going on after many years from his debut, considering that he is singing since the 1960s. Anna Pirozzi will be Abigaille alternating with Anna Markarova; in the cast are also tenor Luciano Ganci and, as Zaccaria, bass Riccardo Zanellato alternating with Raymond Aceto. The staging by Leo Muscato was seen in other opera houses and won even important prizes, so it will be probably very interesting.

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Puccini’s Madama Butterfly also sounds promising, starring Italian soprano Fiorenza Cedolins alternating with young Japanese Yasko Sato, as well as tenor Stefano Secco will alternate as Pinkerton with Vincenzo Costanzo. The two interpreters of Sharpless will be Julian Kim and Damiano Salerno. On the podium young conductor Juraj Valčuha, staging by Fabio Ceresa.
From January to April there will be many symphonic concerts, starting January 27th, with a concert dedicated to the Memory of Holocaust.

The Opera House in Florence, Exterior

The other concerts will have as conductors Kazushi Ono (with bass Vitalij Kowalijow, in Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony), Daniel Oren (with pianist Alexei Volodin in Beethoven’s Fifth Concert), Roberto Abbado (with violinist Renaud Capuçon in Shostakovich’s Violin Concert), Henrik  Nánási (with pianist Giuseppe Albanese in Martucci’s Second Concert), Ryan McAdams (with Paolo Marzocchi and Igor Sklyarov), Xu Zhong, Zubin Mehta with pianist Denis Matsuev in Liszt’s Second Concert.

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Then will be on stage a contemporary opera, Le metamorfosi by Italian componist Silvia Colasanti, a concert of the Chorus del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and special performances for school
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Obviously the orchestra will be Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra. The concerts, considering that New Opera House is still not ready (we don’t know when it will be practicable, for the well known burocratic and financial problems) will take place as usual in historic Teatro Comunale
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Fabio Bardelli
translation from italian Bruno Tredicine