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Inauguration of a new theater space in Milan: the Teatro Sistina in Rome has built the Sistina Chapiteau at the Scalo Farini, which inaugurates the program with the musical “Cats”, which will be followed by others in the coming months. News also in Monte-Carlo, where the Opéra (of which the famous Casino is an integral part), an architectural project by Garnier (also the author of the Parisian Opéra), welcomes a musical, “The Phantom of the Opera”, also by Lloyd Webber. In Ravenna, to listen to Muti interpret “Norma” and “Nabucco”.
Milano
From 13 December to 7 January at the Sistina Chapiteau the musical “Cats”, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; words by TS Eliot, Trevor Nunn, Richard Stilgoe; Italian direction and adaptation by Massimo Romeo Piparo. Choreography by Billy Mitchell, choreographer of London’s West End, who collaborated with other Lloyd Webber musicals, from “School of Rock” to “Cinderella”. It is taken from the “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by Nobel Prize winner Eliot; features singer Malika Ayane as Grizabella; with live orchestra. On one special night of the year, all the Jellicle cats meet at the Ball where Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, chooses and announces which of them will be reborn to a new life as Jellicle. But the feline party is disturbed by two events: the kidnapping of Old Deuteronomy and the appearance of Grizabella, the fascinating glamor cat who, after leaving the Jellicles to explore the world, suffers exclusion and rejection from the pack and launches his desperate and melancholic appeal with the famous song “Memory”, recorded among others by Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Milva, Ute Lemper, and by Jennifer Hudson in the 2019 film. tour until March 3. The musical inaugurates this new theatrical space, the Sistina Chapiteau, at the Scalo Farini, which will also present other musicals produced by the Teatro Sistina in Rome: after “Cats” we will see “Il Marchese del Grillo”, “Matilda”, “Billy Elliot”.
Montecarlo
From 16 to 31 December at the Opèra “Phantom of the Opera”, music by A. Lloyd Webber, who also wrote the libretto, together with R. Stilgoe, while the lyricist is C. Hart; in English and with live orchestra. The show, which was made into a film directed by Joel Schumacher in 2004, debuted in London in 1986 and is still on stage, having received numerous awards and been staged in numerous countries Ramin Karimloo, nominated for an Olivier Award and at the Tony Awards he will be the Phantom again, a role he has already held in London; directed by Federico Bellone. The plot, set at the end of the 19th century, is freely inspired by the novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux and tells of a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious masked man who lives in the underground labyrinths of the Paris Opéra.
Ravenna
At the Alighieri Theater “A Trilogy according to Riccardo Muti”, a triptych that has Italian opera at its heart with the tragic lyricism of Bellini’s “Norma” (16, 19 December) and the yearning for freedom of Verdi’s “Nabucco” ( 17, 20 December) – the two titles presented in semi-scenic form by the visual artist Svccy – and a Verdi gala (22 December). With the Cherubini Youth Orchestra and the Piacenza Theater Choir, Muti will have a beautiful singing company, which was heard with him at the Prada Foundation in Milan last November 29th.