Puccini, Music, the World
MITO SettembreMusica 2024 pays tribute to Giacomo Puccini in the year that marks the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death, with four concerts featuring masterpieces by a cluster of his European contemporaries, as well as two newly commissioned works for orchestra inspired by Puccini and his operatic characters, by present-day composers Andrea Manzoli and Roberta Vacca.
Milano’s Teatro Dal Verme, where many performances of Puccini operas have been staged, plays host to the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra, conducted by Alessandro Cadario, performing a new composition by Roberta Vacca that takes its cue from five of Giacomo Puccini’s greatest loves – his cigars, his punt gun, his boat, his car and his women; followed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Op. 35, featuring soloist Anna Tifu. At Torino’s Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, the Torino Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Giampaolo Pretto, performs Andrea Manzoli’s new composition inspired by Floria Tosca, and Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Sinfonietta Op. 23.
As prolific as Franco Alfano was, he is perhaps best known for having completed Giacomo Puccini’s unfinished opera Turandot – indeed, the rest of Alfano’s works are rarely performed today. But as we continue our tribute to Puccini, MITO SettembreMusica 2024 serves up a pair of concerts featuring an array of Alfano’s lyrical poems. This project is the brainchild of pianist Klaus Simon, who we also have to thank for his research and transcriptions of much unpublished material.
Three quartets will be lavishing listeners with still more music from the early 20th century. In Milano the Prometeo Quartet performs music by Italian heavyweights Giorgio Federico Ghedini and Alfredo Casella, along with pieces by Béla Bartók and György Ligeti. Also in Milano, the Adorno Quartet presents a program entitled American Echoes featuring string quartets by Samuel Barber, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Bernhard Herrmann and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Torino’s Teatro Vittoria hosts the Goldberg Quartet, featuring the talented young winners of the 2023 Abbiati Award, this time around performing music by Gianfrancesco Malipiero, Alfredo Casella and Ottorino Respighi. Violinist Francesca Dego and pianist Alessandro Taverna treat Milano music fans to a program that opens with compositions by Arnold Schönberg and Richard Strauss, and concludes with Violin Sonata No. 9 (also known as The Kreutzer Sonata), one of Beethoven’s most celebrated pieces of music.
Torino’s Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli, Lingotto welcomes Toni Servillo and the Milano Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gianna Fratta, for the performance of Giuseppe Montesano’s Puccini, Puccini, what do you want from me? Of this unusual monologue based on the music of Puccini, Montesano says, “The story stars a smart, refined dandy who can’t stand Puccini’s music. Then he meets a young lady and falls in love with her. Too bad she’s a huge Puccini fan who drags him to the opera. He listens, talks to himself, as the wan, romantic, erotic voices of characters like Mimì, Rodolfo and Tosca ring out.”
Manu Lalli, artistic director of the Venti Lucenti theater collective, brings us The Ice Princess, featuring the participation of 130 elementary school children from Milano and Torino, along with some 30 students from the conservatories of the festival’s host cities, conducted by Giuseppe La Malfa. This educational project is based on an abridged version of Puccini’s Turandot, curated by Enrico Minaglia for Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Performances in both Torino and Milano.
Scheduled events
Franco Alfano
Liriche da camera
Primo concerto
Sophia Burgos, soprano
Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, mezzosoprano
Klaus Simon, pianoforte
Gold Carnet
Pass à la carte
Numbered tickets € 10
Franco Alfano
Liriche da camera
Sophia Burgos, soprano
Nina Tarandek, mezzosoprano
Philipp Schiemenz, violoncello
Klaus Simon, pianoforte
Gold Carnet– Pass
Assigned Seating €10
Quartetto Prometeo
György Ligeti
Quartetto n. 1 "Métamorphoses nocturnes"
Giorgio Federico Ghedini
Terzo Quartetto
Alfredo Casella
Cinque pezzi per quartetto d’archi
Béla Bartók
Quartetto n. 4 in Do maggior
Gold Carnet
Pass à la carte
Numbered tickets € 10
Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali
Alessandro Cadario
Roberta Vacca
P24 - 5 fotogrammi per orchestra
Il toscano
La barca
La spingarda
La macchina
Le donne
Commissionato da MITO SettembreMusica
Prima assoluta
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Concerto in Re maggiore per violino e orchestra
Gold and Silver Carnet
Pass à la carte
Numbered tickets € 15, € 10
Orchestra
Filarmonica di Torino
Giampaolo Pretto
Andrea Manzoli
Dodici rintocchi
Commissionato da MITO SettembreMusica
Prima assoluta
Alexander Zemlinsky
Sinfonietta op. 23
Gold Carnet – Pass
Assigned Seating €10
Gli ottoni dei Pomeriggi Musicali
Repertorio tradizionale spiritual
Just a Closer Walk with Thee
Ennio Morricone
C’era una volta in America (tema)
Luciano Berio
Call per due trombe, corno, trombone e tuba bassa
Nino Rota
Il padrino (tema)
Leonard Bernstein
Suite da West Side Story
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Suite da The Phantom of the Opera
George Gershwin
Four hits for Five
John Williams
Jurassic Park (tema)
Nicola Piovani
La vita è bella (tema)
Claude Debussy
Golliwog’s Cakewalk
Giacomo Puccini
Nessun dorma da Turandot
Vissi d’arte da Tosca
Trascrizioni per quintetto di ottoni
Free entry
Quartetto Goldberg
Gianfrancesco Malipiero
Quartetto n. 1 “Rispetti e Strambotti”
Alfredo Casella
Cinque pezzi per quartetto d’archi
Ottorino Respighi
Quartetto n. 3
Gold Carnet – Pass
Assigned Seating €10
La principessa di gelo da Turandot
di Giacomo Puccini
Riduzione dell’opera di Enrico Minaglia
100 alunni di scuola elementare
Istituto Comprensivo Bruno Caccia di Torino
Scuola Primaria Roberto d'Azeglio
Scuola primaria San Giacomo
Attori della compagnia Venti Lucenti
Regia, scrittura scenica, costumi di Manu Lalli
Gold and Silver Carnets – Pass
Assigned Seating €10
As with all MITO SettembreMusica performances in Torino,
concert-goers age 14 and under pay €1 per ticket.
Toni Servillo
Puccini, Puccini,
che cosa vuoi da me?
Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali
Toni Servillo, voce recitante
Maria Tomassi, soprano
Max Jota, tenore
Gianna Fratta, direttrice
Gold and Silver Carnets – Pass
Assigned Seating €30, €25
Francesca Dego
Alessandro Taverna
Arnold Schönberg
Fantasia per violino e pianoforte op. 47
Richard Strauss
Sonata in Mi bemolle maggiore per violino e pianoforte op. 18
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata n. 9 in La maggiore op. 47 “a Kreutzer”
Gold Carnet
Pass à la carte
Numbered tickets € 10
American Echoes
Quartetto Adorno
Samuel Barber
Quartetto op. 11
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Quartetto n. 3 op. 203 “Casa al dono”
Bernhard Herrmann
Echoes
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Quartetto n. 2 op. 26
Gold Carnet
Pass à la carte
Numbered tickets € 10
La principessa di gelo da Turandot
di Giacomo Puccini
Riduzione dell’opera di Enrico Minaglia
100 alunni di scuola elementare
Scuola Primaria IC Cavalieri - Milano
Scuola Primaria IC Montessori - Bollate
Orchestra di allievi dei Conservatori di Milano e Torino
Roxana Herrera Diaz, soprano, Turandot
Olha Smokolina, soprano, Liù
Alfonso Zambuto, tenore, Calaf
Chiara Casalbuoni, narratrice
Giuseppe La Malfa, direttore
Attori della compagnia Venti Lucenti
Regia, scrittura scenica, costumi di Manu Lalli
Gold Carnet
Pass à la carte
Numbered tickets € 10
Tickets for those born since 2010 € 1