Tuesday 24 January at 20 the curtain rises on the first lyrical appointment of the Maggio Carnival Festival: scheduled, at the Teatro Goldoni, “La finta simple” composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart just twelve years old.
Sparkling and fresh work of rare performance, conducted by Theodor Guschlbauer and staged by Claudia Blersch.
On the stage Benedetta Torre, Luca Bernard, Xenia Tziouvaras, Rosalìa Cid, Eduardo Martinez Flores, Lorenzo Martelli and Davide Piva.

Collaboration with Naba, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti

Florence, 18 January 2023 – After the symphonic concert directed by Marc Albrecht that inaugurated the Carnival Festival, the first lyrical appointment of the Festival is finally underway: on the bill, Tuesday 24 January at 8 PM at the Teatro Goldoni, La finta semplice, jewel of a just twelve-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart of rare performance and never staged in the Maggio. On the podium, returning to the Maggio after the concert dedicated to the City of Florence on 2 September 2022, maestro Theodor Guschlbauer conducting the Orchestra del Maggio; directed by Claudia Blersch, in her debut on the Florentine scene. The cast, which features a large ensemble of artists and former artists of the Accademia del Maggio, is made up of Benedetta Torre in the role of Rosina; Eduardo Martinez Flores as Don Cassandro; Lorenzo Martelli as Don Polidoro; Xenia Tziouvaras as Giacinta; Rosalìa Cid in the role of Ninetta; Luca Bernard as Fracasso and Davide Piva who plays Simone.

In this new set-up, the scenes and costumes are by the Students of the BA in Scenography at NABA, the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti with the guidance of Margherita Palli, Course Advisor Leader of the same BA; thanks are also Margherita Palli, Marco Cristini, Eleonora Peronetti, Emilia Zagnoli (NABA teachers) and Romeo Gasparini, Alice Rossi, Michela Negretto, Pierfilippo Luigi Tortora (NABA students). The lights are curated by Andrea Locorotondo.

Talkin about the Teatro Goldoni and the Accademia del Maggio, the chairman Alexander Pereira, presenting the show, underlined among other things: “Finally we are giving life again to the Teatro Goldoni, where we already host the dramaturgy center of the Teatro delle Donne and where I dream and hope to be able to bring at least one production to this little gem of theaters every year. It is also a source of pride for us to be able to bring this new production of La finta simple with a cast formed almost entirely by the singers of the Academy, with the precious addition of Benedetta Torre, who was already a formidable Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro of the last season. They are joined by maestro Guschlbauer, also one of the protagonists of Le nozze di Figaro and, with his skills and experience, a guide for this very talented and very young cast; organized also thanks to the work of the artistic coordinator of the Academy, Gianni Tangucci, which allows me to underline the high level achieved and hoping to be able to strengthen the Accademia del Maggio even more.”

Three other performances scheduled on the bill, all at 8 pm: 26, 28 and 29 January 2023.

For the cycle of conferences on the works of the season “Lyrics first, then the music”, the musicologist Marco Beghelli presents La finta semplice at 5.30 pm on 20 January 2023 in the gallery foyer of the Teatro del Maggio.

We thank Intesa Sanpaolo for the support.

Thanks to the CR Firenze Foundation, the performance on 01/26/2023 is offered to the public with a 50% discount on tickets for each sector.

Immediately after the first symphonic appointment, the Maggio Carnival Festival dedicated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and his legendary Faust finally reaches its first opera stage, which also marks a Florentine debut for what is a real rare jewel by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: La finta semplice. Composed by the genius of Salzburg in the spring of 1768 and performed for the first time in the archbishop’s palace of his city on 1 May 1769, it is based on the libretto written by Marco Coltellini, who adapted and rearranged a pre-existing libretto by Carlo Goldoni for Salvatore Perillo in 1764 , in turn taken from the “comédie en prose” La Fausse Agnés ou Le Poète campagnard by Philippe Néricault Destouches. Therefore a truly unique and evocative opportunity to be able to attend for the very first time in the Maggio this youthful masterpiece by Mozart, performed in the Theater that bears the name of Goldoni, which was the source of inspiration for the libretto of the young man’s work Mozart. The show, playful drama for music in three acts, touches on some of the most recurring situations in opera buffa, among which the farcical duel of the second act stands out; in general, the whole tone of the work falls within the comic sphere, as evidenced by a series of arias characterized by some refined compositional solutions.

On the podium is maestro Theodor Guschlbauer, one of the most popular Mozart performers, who takes on the direction of La finta simple 16 years after the performances he directed in Zurich in 2006 and returns to May after the success of his direction of Le nozze di Figaro scheduled during the 84th edition of the Maggio Musicale festival (2022). Born in Vienna in 1939, he took piano and cello lessons before studying conducting with Hans Swarowsky. He subsequently continued his studies with Lovro von Matačić and Herbert von Karajan. His first writing offers him the chance to conduct the Wiener Volksoper and the Salzburg Landestheater. He soon became Music Director of the Opéra de Lyon and in 1975 was appointed “Generalmusikdirektor” in Linz. He reached the position of musical and artistic director of the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra between 1983 and 1998 and, from 1997 to 2001, he became artistic and musical director of the Orchester Philharmonique Rhénanie-Palatinat. He conducts many of the most important orchestras including the Wiener Philharmoniker, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchester de Paris, the Orchester de la Suisse Romande, the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the RAI Orchestra of Turin, the NHK Orchestra of Tokyo and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He periodically works in many festivals, including those of Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Prague, Lucerne and Montreux. He is also guest conductor in Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Vienna, Geneva, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris. He has made more than sixty recordings, some of which have been awarded the “Grand Prix du Disque”. The Goethe Foundation in Basel awarded him with the prestigious “Mozart Prize”, and the Alsace Foundation with its “Honour Prize”. He is also “Knight in the Order of the Legion of Honor”, the highest honor awarded by the French Republic.

Commenting on the work done on this new staging, the maestro underlined how incredible it is to think that the composer of this work, although destined to become one of the greatest geniuses ever, was little more than a child at the time of writing: ” It is truly incredible to think how a little boy managed to compose such a ‘little masterpiece’, full of arias and recitatives that already distinguish the work, and its composer, from the Baroque period that has just passed: in this work, curated by the delightful direction of Claudia Blersch, we find seven characters, all equally important to the intricate dramaturgical development; perhaps only the character of Baroness Rosina is ultimately more important than the others. Being able to pick up the score of this little gem again after sixteen years is truly splendid, and it is exciting to do it in the theater that bears the name of Carlo Goldoni, the very one who inspired the libretto then edited by Marco Coltellini. I’m also really happy to be able to work with the cast I have at my disposal, young and absolutely of a high standard”.

Even the director Claudia Blersch wanted to dwell on how amazing it is to think that such a work was written by a Mozart who was little more than a child: “To think that a 12-year-old child has picked up a text like that of Carlo Goldoni, even if with the fundamental support of Marco Coltellini, and managed to make it a real opera complete with arias, duets, quartets and three finales, it is truly incredible. Despite all the differences of the case, we can already perceive, in this work, ‘something’ that brings us to mind to what will be his future great masterpieces such as for example Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte. In this work we can also already notice the great importance that this genius-child gives to the human aspect of the characters; in terms of directing this is very important to me. The situation on stage is very different from the baroque schemes and indeed, embraces the classic developments of the commedia dell’arte: two couples, two ‘big brothers’ to deceive and a ‘fairy’ who is none other than Rosina, who he will have to untie the various knots that characterize the plot”.

Claudia Blersch, making her debut in Maggio, obtained a master’s degree in Cultural Studies at the Hochschule der Künste in Zurich and won the Ring Award at the competition for young opera directors in Graz in 2003. She has worked at the Zurich Opernhaus since 1997 where he created numerous shows (Così fan tutte, Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, Der geduldige Socrates by Telemann and The Enchanted Pig by Jonathan Dove), collaborating with the most important directors, conductors and singers such as Jürgen Flimm, Götz Friedrich, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Leo Nucci, Ruggero Raimondi, Vesselina Kasarova and Cecilia Bartoli. Her works also include multimedia projects such as the video installation Slotmachine / Tosca, with soprano Elena Moșuc, awarded in 2007 at the Zurich Arts Festival. As a guest director you have participated in important productions in major international theatres: Real in Madrid, Liceu in Barcelona, La Scala in Milan, Regio in Turin, Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Bunkamura in Tokyo and Shanghai Opera. You directed the world premieres of Arnaldo de Felice’s opera Akumu and Anno Schreiber’s Hinter Masken. In 2008 you created your first semi-scenic edition of La Cenerentola for Cecilia Bartoli on the occasion of the Malibran-Marathon at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. The project was then taken up by the Monte-Carlo Opéra and successfully toured by Cecilia Bartoli and the Musiciens du Prince-Monaco in major European concert halls, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Opéra royal in Versailles, the Grimaldi Forum of the Principality of Monaco, the Elbphilharmonie of Hamburg and the Staatsoper of Vienna. You produced and staged La Cinderella and Don Pasquale at the Baxter Theater in Cape Town (South Africa) and, in 2018, you made a version of Die sieben Todsünden by Kurt Weill, involving street workers and one of the marching bands of the city. Claudia Blersch is also a lecturer at the International Opera Studio in Zurich.

The sets and costumes of the show are taken care of by the students of the BA in Scenography at NABA, with the guidance of Margherita Palli, Course Advisor Leader of the same BA: the New Academy of Fine Arts is the training academy for art and design NABA is the largest in Italy and is also the first to have obtained, in 1981, official recognition from the Ministry of University and Research. Founded by Ausonio Zappa in Milan in 1980, with the collaboration in an initial phase of Guido Ballo and Tito Varisco, and a nucleus of artists including Gianni Colombo, it was selected by QS World University Rankings by Subject as the best Academy of Fine Arts Italian and was included by Domus Magazine among the hundred best schools of Design and Architecture in Europe, and by Frame among the thirty best postgraduate schools of Design and Fashion in the world.

On the stage a young and talented cast, led by Benedetta Torre and alongside her formed largely by a large group of students and former students of the Accademia del Maggio, confirming the great artistic quality of the Florentine theater academy. So in the role of Baroness Unghera Rosina here is Benedetta Torre, until a few days ago engaged in an exceptional cameo as Una voce dal cielo in Don Carlo directed by maestro Daniele Gatti, the final work of the Maggio Autumn Festival. The young soprano, who made her debut in 2019 at the Maggio in Giovanni Paisiello’s Missa defunctorum conducted by Riccardo Muti, then returned for Cosi fan tutte first under the direction of Zubin Mehta in March 2021 and then under the direction of Ádám Fischer (directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf) in September 2021 and finally in Lo sposo di tre, e marito di nessuna by Luigi Cherubini, (conducted by Diego Fasolis and directed by Cesare Lievi) in February 2022. Benedetta Torre is among the best interpreters Mozartians of her generation; she was always the protagonist during 2022, in Maggio, of another title by the composer from Salzburg, also directed by maestro Guschlbauer, namely Le nozze di Figaro.

After winning the youth prize at the “V Francesco Paolo Tosti International Singing Competition” he supports three concerts in Tokyo and Osaka. He participates in the “6th Renata Tebaldi International Singing Competition”, winning the 2nd prize and, despite his young age, has already collaborated with some of the most important conductors of recent years such as Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti and Ádám Fischer. in 2015 and in 2016 she sang in La bohème (Mimì) at the Ravenna Festival, directed by Cristina Mazzavillani Muti, and at the Teatro del Giglio in Lucca. In 2017 she made her debut in L’elisir d’amore (Adina) at the Carlo Felice in Genoa, she sang Aida (Priestess) at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Riccardo Muti, and again La bohème (Mimì) in the Marche circuit under the direction by Leo Muscato and the direction of Matteo Beltrami. In 2018 she took part in the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto where she played the role of Ariadne in the inaugural work Minotaur by Silvia Colasanti, directed by Jonathan Webb, and that of Marguerite in the dramatic oratorio Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher by Honegger, directed by Jérémie Rhorer. Her most recent engagements include Poulenc’s Stabat Mater for the inauguration of the 2018/2019 concert season at the Petruzzelli di Bari; Le nozze di Figaro (Susanna) at the Rome Opera, directed by Graham Vick and conducted by Stefano Montanari; Gianni Schicchi (Lauretta) at the Carlo Felice directed by Rolando Panerai and Mozart’s Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Speaking about the character of Rosina, he underlined how a sparkling air and compositional freshness is ‘breathed’ in the opera: “Singing La finta simple is an opportunity to discover the genius of Mozart at the beginning, he was in fact 12 years old when he composed it and it is his first work in Italian and which already allows us to savor what will come of him next. Furthermore, the libretto, by Marco Coltellini, comes from a pre-existing one by Carlo Goldoni, the father of modern comedy who gives his name to the theater where we will stage this youthful creation, a really nice coincidence! The musical structures are still Haydnian and closely linked to the taste of the time, but already in some arias and above all in the ensemble scenes such as the final concertati one can glimpse the genius of the Wedding or Don Giovanni. It is a pleasantly light story, in which youthful love is in fact the protagonist. Rosina, a bit like deus ex machina, will be an accomplice of the protagonists in the intrigues they plan to get married, in the meantime deceiving the two brothers Cassandro and Polidoro, first by making them fall in love and finally by not indulging in either of them. Little Mozart gave my character very beautiful and varied arias, from the most cheerful to others more elegiac such as the well-known “Amoretti”, of a very elegant cantabile. I am also happy to try my hand at this Mozartian title, a precious rarity that I gladly add to my artistic baggage”.

Eduardo Martinez Flores interprets Don Cassandro, a gentleman and rich Terrazzo from Cremona but foolish and stingy: in his still young career he has already managed to show himself as one of the most promising singers of his generation, being awarded as winner of the 19th and 20th edition of the “Ottavio Ziino” International Competition in Rome and 1st place at the “Canta México”, “Opera Sin Limites Competition” and “Carlo Morelli Competition”. His repertoire includes opera, oratorio and symphonic music. He has performed the roles of Gregorio in Roméo et Juliette at the Teatro del Maggio, as well as Marcello in La Bohème at the Teatro Bicentenario, Belcore in L’ elisir d’ amore, and Marco in Gianni Schicchi. With OSSLA he has participated in various concerts, including Orff’s Carmina Burana, Faurè’s Requiem, Broadway Nights, Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. He was part of the Los Cabos Polyphonic Choir between 2016 and 2018. He has participated as a soloist with the Orchestra del Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Guanajuato, the Sinaloa Symphony Orchestra of the Arts (OSSLA) and the Sonoran Philharmonic, under the direction of masters such as Henrik Nánási, Enrique Patrón de Rueda, Miguel Salmón del Real, Roberto Beltrán Zabala, Teresa Rodríguez, Héctor Acosta and Alejandro Miyaki. Eduardo has also attended masterclasses with Placido Domingo, Javier Camarena and Lucas Meachem. He was also one of the Flemish Deputies in the recent Don Carlo directed by maestro Daniele Gatti.

Lorenzo Martelli plays the role of Don Polidoro, Cassandro’s younger brother and equally a foolish gentleman like him: after graduating from the L’Aquila Conservatory at the age of 22, he began attending numerous academies, including that of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa in 2021 and the Bottega Donizetti in Bergamo in the summer of 2022, as well as having already debuted and sung in various theaters such as the San Carlo in Naples and precisely the Carlo Felice in Genoa in various roles including: Nemorino, Gastone, Rinuccio and Arlecchino.

Xenia Tziouvaras, recently engaged in Ernani, staged in Sala Mehta last November, plays Jacinta, the sister of Cassandro and Polidoro: she has already trod some of the most prestigious international stages and has recently taken part in numerous shows including Ayda: amore fatale (Amneris), I due Foscari (Pisana) and Roméo et Juliette (Gertrude) at the Maggio, Young voices at the Fenice (arias by Olga, Dorabella and Angelina) at the Teatro La Fenice; A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Britten (Hermia); Serenade to Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams at Carnegie Hall and I due timidi by Nino Rota (Signora Guidotti), La Cenerentola (Thisbe), Così fan tutte (Dorabella and Despina), A Childhood Miracle by Ned Rorem (Emma), La piccola volpe astuta (Cane), L’incoronazione di Poppea (Nero) and Le Roi l’a dit di Delibes (Marquis de La Bluette), all in New York.

Rosalìa Cid interprets Ninetta, their maid: protagonist at the Maggio in the recent concert directed by Dame Jane Glover on 19 November, she began her musical journey as a child in the ancient music “Cappella Compostelana” of the Cathedral of her city and in the choir of the Orquesta Santiago de Compostela, to then graduate in singing in Santiago, La Coruña and Vigo. In 2018 she moved to Florence to study at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory and in January 2019 she made her debut as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi directed by Paolo Ciardi, also performing in “Ciak, Bohème” (Mimì and Musetta), a production by the Teatro del Maggio Fiorentino, at the Teatro Goldoni in Florence. Still at the Teatro del Maggio, in 2020, she is Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore for children, staging by the Teatro alla Scala directed by Grisha Asagaroff and in the same year she begins her career at the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, singing, always at the Teatro del Maggio, in Rigoletto, conducted by Riccardo Frizza and directed by Davide Livermore and as Liù in Turandot, Principessa di Gelo, a show of Bright winds directed by Manu Lalli. She also debuted the role of Gabriel in Haydn’s Die Schöpfung for the opening of the Valle d’ Itria Festival conducted by Fabio Luisi and directed by Fabio Ceresa.

The character of Fracasso, a captain in the Hungarian troops based in the Cremona area and brother of Rosina, is played by Luca Bernard: he began treading the theater scene as a child as a member of the Zürich Sängerknaben choir with which, among other things, he also sang in Die Zauberflöte (second child) at the Opernhaus in Zurich. He graduated in Opera Performance at the Hochschule der Künste in his city, where he initially studied piano with Eckart Heiligers. He won the scholarship of the Prof. Armin Weltner Foundation and Migros-Kulturprozen, and attended masterclasses with important teachers, including, Brigitte Fassbaender, Christa Ludwig and Salvatore Fisichella. In 2016 he was a finalist in the international vocal competition ‘Othmar Schoeck’ and the following year he sang Der Zigeunerbaron (Ottokar) by Johann Strauss at the Operettenbühne in Hombrechtikon (Switzerland). As a member of the International Opera Studio, he has performed numerous roles at the Opernhaus, including that of Stanislaus in Carl Zeller’s operetta Der Vogelhändler. At the Maggio he was recently the protagonist of Ariadne auf Naxos, staged last June during the 84th Festival del Maggio.

Davide Piva plays the role of Simone, Captain Fracasso’s sergeant: he dedicates himself to studying opera singing at the Francesco Bonporti Conservatory in Trento, under the care of Daniela Longhi, obtaining the first level academic diploma in singing with honors in 2020 , praise and honorable mention. In the two-year period 2021-2022 he is an artist at the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He also enriches his repertoire with roles ranging from Mozart, such as Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, precisely Simone in La finta semplice, Leporello or Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni, to Rossini and Belcanto. He obtained the Riccardo Zandonai award and the Audience Award in the “XXVI Riccardo Zandonai Opera Competition”. He has recently taken part in various productions of the Maggio, including: Rigoletto (Conte di Ceprano); Adriana Lecouvreur (Quinault); Cosi fan tutti per bambini(Guglielmo); La serva padrona (Uberto), L’elisir d’amore (Dulcamara), Le nozze di Figaro (Antonio) and Ariadne auf Naxos (Ein Offizier).