FULL NOZZE ISTRIANE (Smareglia) Castell’Arquato 2023 Sarah Tisba, Graziano Dallavalle, Giuseppe Infantino, Filippo Polinelli
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Information on the Performance
- Work Title: NOZZE ISTRIANE
- Composer: Smareglia Antonio
- Libretto: Luigi Illica Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Piazza del Municipio, Castell’Arquato (PC), Italy, Festival Illica
- Recorded: July 7, 2023
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Sarah Tisba, Graziano Dallavalle, Giuseppe Infantino, Filippo Polinelli, Francesco Samuele Venuti, Giovanna Lanza
- Conductor: Jacopo Brusa
- Orchestra: Orchestra Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini
- Chorus: Coro del Festival Illica
- Chorus Master: Riccardo Bianchi
Information about the Recording
- Published by: TERRE PIACENTINE
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
“Nozze istriane” is today considered the masterpiece of Antonio Smareglia (1854-1929), a composer who enjoyed great appreciation during his lifetime, including the esteem of Richard Strauss, but was marginalized by his own environment for political reasons in his last years ( had not accepted the irredentist positions in vogue at the turn of the Great War) and his works were excluded from the repertoire. “Smareglia traitor”, “Smareglia menagramo”, these were the kindest words reserved for him and which, incredibly, some still believe today. In reality, Smareglia’s production is among the most original of his time, capable of ranging easily between post-romantic historical drama, the most passionate realism and a certain symbolism of Maeterlinckian origin, which came to him through the librettos of Silvio Benco . “Istrian Wedding” manages to stand out as a clever mix of these last two elements: if the story has the strong colors of absolute feelings and a rural setting, as in Verismo, the character of the “lost” Luze seems to come out of the verses of twilight poets and underlines the tragedy of passions precisely because of its painful and dreamy nature. In light of these few reflections, we cannot but congratulate the Illica Festival for having chosen to re-propose this gem of Italian opera, too often dismissed as “the Cavalleria Rusticana of the North”, when instead, on a dramaturgical level and in the construction of characters, is clearly deeper and more complex than Mascagna’s one-act play.