Luca Mosca
Signor Goldoni
Libretto by Gianluigi Melega (in English language)
WORLD PREMIERE on DVD
DVD dynamics 33600
Cast
Despina Barbara Hannigan
L'anzolo Rafael Alda Caiello
Mirandolina Cristina Zavalloni
Desdemona Sara Mingardo
Arlecchino Michael Bennett
Baffo Chris Ziegler
Goldoni Roberto Abbondanza
Othello Michael Leibundgut
Conductor Andrea Molino
Director Davide Livermore
Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Fenice
Signor Goldoni (2005-7) was commissioned by Teatro La Fenice to
celebrate the 300th anniversary of the homegrown playwright Carlo
Goldoni (see: Reviews). The primary points of reference for the opera's creators are
Auden and Stravinsky, as well as Rossini.
Shakespeare also plays a central role in the libretto, which
incorporates those tragedies and comedies set in the Veneto: Othello,
Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and The Two Gentlemen of
Verona. Othello (later revealed as none other than the masked
Shakespeare himself) and Desdemona are characters in the opera; a few
lines from Othello are even quoted, as well as some from Romeo and
Juliet. Appearances are also made by characters from Goldoni's plays
such as Arlecchino and Mirandolina, as well as Mozart's Despina.
The texts of Melega (who is an established journalist in addition to
his literary production) are all in English, a language favoured by
both composer and librettist for its concreteness and brevity, and for
its inherent rich opportunities for plays on one and two-syllable words
as well as a powerfully inventive concept of rhythm.
The opera relates how in the Elysian fields the Anzolo Rafael (the
Angel from the facade of the Church of San Raffaele in Venice) informs
an incredulous Goldoni that he will be able to journey down to earth,
to his native Venice, and mingle with the masks of a Carnival ball on
the theme of Shakespeare's "Venetian dreams". Giorgio Baffo, a poet
contemporary of - and hostile to - Goldoni, forces himself onto them at
the last moment, as the villain of the situation. With Othello
(Shakespeare in disguise), Desdemona, Arlecchino, Mirandolina and
Despina, the three enact a surreal, dreamlike opera where imagination
runs rampant, in a whirling succession of images, where fragments are
linked like in a kaleidoscope and rhythm plays an essential role.