Event Details
Wed, June 29, 2022
21:00 – 22:30
CONTINUUM THEATER
Villa La Pietra
Via Bolognese, 120
50139 Firenze, Italia
RSVP: lapietra.reply@nyu.edu
A one-act opera buffa composed by Roberto Scarcella Perino based on the original libretto by Mark Campbell, commissioned by NYU Florence and NYU-Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, co-produced by Teatro Ponchielli di Cremona and the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York.
Preceding the opera, at 6:30 pm, there will be a conversation about the making of “A Sweet Silence in Cremona” with librettist Mark Campbell, musicologist Donatella Righini, and Stefano Albertini, Director NYU-Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò. The conversation will be moderated by Larry Wolff, Co-Director NYU Florence.
Characters and Performers
Yassine – Gianluca Moro
Valentina/The Violin – Sara Fanin
Giulia – Costanza Fontana
Mariolina – Antonella Di Giacinto
Ettore*/Attila/The Luthier – Ramiro Maturana
* Ettore when in chorus – Lorenzo Tosi
Director
Giuseppe Bruno
ORCHESTRA MONTEVERDI FESTIVAL
Featured Biographies
Roberto Scarcella Perino
COMPOSER
Roberto Scarcella Perino’s music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by excellent ensembles and soloists throughout Europe and The United States, including the Orchestra Arturo Toscanini, the Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Giuseppe Bruno, Emanuele Arciuli, and the Exclusive Saxophone Quartet.
His works include five operas, 2 piano concertos, movie scores, ballets, chamber and choral music. His first opera, A Caval Donato, commissioned and premiered by Teatro Verdi in Pisa in 1999, has been produced also at Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Messina. Mr. Scarcella Perino was chosen to write the music for Verdi, Merli and Cucù, an opera commissioned and premiered by Teatro Verdi in Busseto, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the death of Giuseppe Verdi in 2001. Blackout had its world premiere in October 2003 at the Tarrytown Music Hall in New York, and had further productions at Teatro Piccolo Regio in Turin and at Teatro Savio in Messina. August 2017 saw the world premiere of his new opera Furiosus commissioned by the International Opera Theater of Philadelphia in Città della Pieve (Umbria). His Azione in Musica for children’s chorus, Le Passioni dell’Anima, lyrics by Federica Anichini, the sequel to his successful Le Passioni dell’Aria, was premiered in Italy in April 2017 and one month later in New York performed by the New York City Children’s Chorus.
Mr. Scarcella Perino is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the NYU Italian Department, Faculty at the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera, a Scholar in Residence at the American Institute for Verdi Studies and the Composer in Residence at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò. Every summer, Roberto teaches a course on Italian Opera at NYU in Florence.
Mark Campbell
LIBRETTIST
The Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning works of librettist/lyricist Mark Campbell are among the most successful in the contemporary opera canon. Mark has written 40 opera librettos, lyrics for 7 musicals and text for 6 song cycles and 4 oratorios. His operas include Silent Night, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, As One, The Shining, Elizabeth Cree, Sanctuary Road, Stonewall, Later the Same Evening, and Bastianello/Lucrezia. In 2020, he created and funded the first award for opera librettists in the history of the art form: the annual Campbell Opera Librettist Prize and in 2022 co-created the True Voice Award to help with the training of transgender singers. Upcoming premieres include: Unruly Sun for Orchestre Classique de Montréal, Edward Tulane for Minnesota Opera, A Year to the Day for The Violin Channel, A Thousand Acres for Des Moines Metro Opera, Irena for Teatr Muzyczny w Poznaniu, and A Nation of Others for the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall. www.markcampbellwords.com.
Giuseppe Bruno
DIRECTOR
Giuseppe Bruno graduated with honors in Piano, Composition and Conducting with
Professors Specchi, Zangelmi and Taverna. He also studied piano with Paolo Bordoni,
conducting with Leopold Hager and attended a seminar in composition at the IRCAM in
Paris. Performing for several years as a pianist in many different chamber ensembles and
as a brilliant soloist, Bruno has played with many important orchestras throughout the
world and conducted prestigious ensembles such as Archi della Scala, Orchestra della
Toscana, Ukraine National Orchestra, Sarajevo Philharmonic. He has collaborated with
great conductors, singers, instrumentalists, and participated in the “Festival of Two
Worlds” in Spoleto, Italy, and Charleston, South Carolina. Maestro Bruno was a prize
winner at the International Piano Contest in Rome in 1991 and also in 1992 at the “Viotti”
competition in Vercelli, Italy, in a duo with violinist Alberto Bologni. He has recorded for
Nuova Fonit Cetra, Diapason, SAM, Bongiovanni, Ars publica, Sheva, Ars musici,
OnClassical, Da Vinci, as well as for RAI, Swiss radio, Vatican radio and for WDR. In 2018
he has conducted the Italian Première of Liszt’s forgotten opera Sardanapalo at the
Lerici Music Festival. His compositions were performed in Italy, China, USA, France,
Germany and recorded by violinist Alberto Bologni and saxophonist Valentina Renesto,
his transcription of Mahler’s “Purgatorio” (from the Symphony n.10) has been published
by Universal Edition Wien. Maestro Bruno is currently Director of the “Giacomo Puccini”
Conservatoire in La Spezia.