The musical activities part of “Un’Isola di Musica - Festival d’estate 2009” at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari continue with six performances dedicated to the masterpiece of musical Verism: Cavalleria rusticana, melodrama in one act with libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, from the drama of the same name by Giovanni Verga , music by Pietro Mascagni, in a new staging by the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, in collaboration with VisualClassics.

Two prestigious casts specialized in this repertoire alternate for the performances of Cavalleria rusticana: Sofia Mitropoulos (Santuzza), Loredana Aramu/Graziella Ortu (Lola), Carlo Barricelli (Turiddu), Alessandro Senes/Gionata Gilio (Alfio) and Maria Grazia Chirco/Giuliana Porcu (Lucia).

Sandro Sanna conducts the Teatro Lirico Orchestra and Chorus. Fulvio Fogliazza is the Chorus Master. The production and the visualisation of the setting are by Paolo Miccichè.

La rappresentazione dell’opera verrà preceduta dall’esecuzione dell’intermezzo del Guglielmo Ratcliff e dell’intermezzo di L’amico Fritz di Pietro Mascagni.

Dates:
- Sunday 2nd August at 9.30pm, at the Sagrato della Basilica di Nostra Signora di Bonaria in Cagliari,
- Tuesday 4th August at 9pm in Stella Maris church in Porto Cervo,
- Thursday 6th August at 9.30pm at the ex Convento dei Cappuccini in Bosa,
- Saturday 8th august at 9.30pm at the Sagrato della Cattedrale di San Pantaleo in Dolianova,
- Monday 10th August at 9.30pm in piazza del Duomo in Oristano,
- Wednesday 12th August at 9.30pm in piazza Roma in Carbonia.

The Teatro Lirico di Cagliari presents the performance of the popular masterpiece of musical Verism, in a particular and fascinating new staging. The delightful use of lighting, which enhances the urban spaces and the varied religious architecture of the venues, evokes the opera’s setting. Cavalleria rusticana will in fact be performed on an extremely interesting itinerary beginning at the Sagrato della Basilica di Nostra Signora di Bonaria in Cagliari, continuing in other equally attractive and traditional tourist locations around the island: Porto Cervo, Bosa, Oristano, Dolianova and Carbonia.

The producer Paolo Miccichè described the distinctive features of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari ‘s new project: «The “evocative-descriptive” character of the Opera will be portrayed through architectural projections on the churches, while the more theatrical side, the stage action, will be outside normal stage conventions since it is immersed in the life of the squares. The Chorus and the soloists will be among the audience for the whole performance, appearing as necessary to perform, amid lighting effects. A “Holy performance”, similar to that of the Holy Week in which the boundary between performers and audience is minimal, transient. The event will be unique on each evening in all the venues, as the “setting” for every performance will be completed by each particular square with its own audience. There will be a strong sense of estrangement - and then repossession – as the churches go back to being themselves after having hosted the images; in the days following the performances the inhabitants-spectators will find themselves seeing the churches through different eyes and with a new awareness.”

The opera will be backed up by fascinating special effects of lighting and projections, used in Italy for the first time. The tour, which travels to a variety of places, has to be reasonably easy to set up for a performance each evening. State of the arts projection equipment will be used, which the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari invested in, aiming towards a wider audience and further exalting the Teatro’s relationship with the Sardinian territory. In the future there is also the plan to take the “Cavalleria rusticana del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari” project around the rest of Italy. The project will maintain its originality thanks to its creative and technical production staff. This ambitious project has been possible partly due to the ‘mixed economy’ strategies adopted by the apparently different entities; Fondazione del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari and VisualClassics, who wanted it and have promoted it. This is an excellent production for audiences, in a moment of considerable economic instability for the sector.