Gaulitana: A Festival of Music marks its long-awaited return to live opera in grand style presenting Verdi’s best-loved oeuvre, La Traviata.
Since Manon Lescaut was held in 2019, the festival transformed the forced hiatus due to the pandemic by producing a number of virtual operatic series shot in idyllic locations around Gozo. A successful venture, the recently streamed Viva l’Opera, reached 228k views around the world.
The 2023 festival however shall re-present the genre in its glory as the full-scale opera highlights the current Gaulitana edition, a multifarious programme running throughout April. The event is an intrinsic feature of the OPERA+ Weekend, a 3-day cultural bonanza bringing the festival to a climactic end.
La Traviata boasts a stellar cast led by Ekaterina Bakanova, the mesmerising artist who shot to stardom as “a stunning Violetta” after her spectacular last-minute Covent Garden debut, and Francesco Meli billed “as probably the best Alfredo in terms of timbre and vocal expression”.
Piero Terranova, lauded for his “monumental” as Giorgio Germont interprets the role as he returns to Gozo following his “imposing authoritative” Amonasro last October. The line-up is complemented by a number of international artists regularly performing in leading opera houses together with local singers Alan Sciberras and Louis Andrew Cassar.
The production shall be once again directed by Enrico Castiglione, one of the most respected figures of his generation. Fusing a cinematographic visual inspiration with innovative concepts, hallmarks of his operas at Gaulitana include the grand Tosca (2014) and the Ġgantija-reimagined Norma (2018). The camellia, the flower associated with Violetta original plot by Alexandre Dumas, inspires this year’s stage design.
The opera, with English surtitles, will feature the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gaulitanus Choir under the baton of Colin Attard, one of the leading figures of the genre on the islands.
La Traviata will be held on Saturday 29 April at Teatru tal-Opra Aurora under the distinguished patronage of H.E. George Vella, President of Malta.
Gaulitana: A Festival of Music, an EFFE Label awardee, is principally supported by the Investment in Cultural Organisations – Gozo of Arts Council Malta and the Ministry for Gozo.
Online booking is available on: www.teatruaurora.com or via the ticket helpline 7904 5779.
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