The Instituto Municipal de Cultura, Turismo y Arte de Mazatlán with the support of the civil association Friends of the Opera, chaired by Dr. Jorge Fuentevilla Wheatley, presents on Friday, the 13th and Saturday, the 14th of October at eight at night at the Ángela Peralta Theater, “Le Villi”, a short opera with very beautiful music by Giacomo Puccini (Lucca 1858 – Brussels 1924).
The Camerata Mazatlán participates in the second great event of the Festival Cultural Mazatlán with guest musicians and the Guillermo Sarabia Choir under the direction of Mtro. Enrique Patrón de Rueda and Mtra. Martha Felix.
Highlighted will be the performance of the young talents of national lyrical singing, Rebeca de Rueda (soprano), Alejandro Yépez (tenor), José Lora (Baritone) and dancers from the Mazatlán Ballet Company directed by maestra Zoila Fernández. All under the baton of Guest Director Sergio Freeman and stage direction by Ramón Gómez Polo.
Although “Le Villi” was Puccini’s first opera, it already had the most important stylistic element of the great Italian composer: the tendency towards melancholy expressed through a hidden and discreet harmony.
The Intermezzo (symphonic part) was composed, with the title Abandonment, for the second version and received very good reviews. In it, Puccini puts into music the gradual oblivion suffered by the image that he carries in his heart of the woman he loves. The idea for the composition gives a glimpse of Wagner’s influence at that time.
Maestro Sergio Freeman, guest director in this musical performance, commented that including “Le Villi” in the calendar of the Festival Cultural Mazatlán 2023 was a very good choice by Amigos de la Ópera A.C., as it is a very interesting proposal.
Le Villi is a very important title in Puccini’s history, it is a short opera, it lasts about an hour, it is almost not performed, however it has very beautiful music and you can understand why Ricordi saw in Puccini a promise in opera, the root of the music of this piece, said Freeman.
“Le Villi is Puccini’s first opera, a young Puccini, just out of the Conservatory, composed this opera for a competition that he did not win but with the help of sponsors he managed to perform it and after this he became involved with Giulio Ricordi – from the Casa Ricordi, a publishing house dedicated to disseminating classical music and opera, thanks to this piece the publisher discovered Puccini, offered him an exclusive contract to publish his work and was later the one who helped him in the composition of his most famous operas,” said the virtuoso director of orchestra.
Maestro Sergio Freeman said that because it is a short opera, at the beginning of the program a mini gala will be presented with other arias and some orchestral works by Puccini.
The first version of this ballet opera premiered in one act at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan on May 31, 1884, and the second version in two acts at the Teatro Regio in Turin on December 26, 1884.
Tickets: Orchestra $400 pesos, 350, $300, $250, available at the Ángela Peralta Theater box office. Tel. 669 982 4446 ext. 103 and at the digital box office 669 120 0020.
