[Language: Italian with Burnt-in English Subtitles]

The two masterpieces Il tabarro (The cloack) by Giacomo Puccini and The Castle of Prince Bluebeard by Béla Bartók are on stage at the Opera Theatre in Rome. (This content is not available for viewing in Italy, Japan and China)

Il tabarro, which is part of a three-year project in collaboration with the Puccini Festival of Torre del Lago on the occasion of the centenary of the great composer's death, is directed by Maestro Michele Mariotti. The one-act opera, with a libretto by Giuseppe Adami, is based on the drama La Houppelande by Didier Gold and was first performed in New York in 1918; it was part of the Triptych together with Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. Over time, while never becoming a popular opera, Il tabarro has earned a respectable place among Puccini's operas: the intentional absence of easy melodies is compensated by an extreme dramatic and compositional density. From a dramaturgical point of view, Il tabarro would appear to be a verist opera; the action takes place in fact in the slums of Paris on the banks of the Seine, among stevedores and women of the people. Considered one of Puccini's darkest operas, it hinges on the idea of ​​time passing, metaphorically embodied by the time of sunset, the autumn season and above all by the slow flow of the river, around which the whole story develops.

Prince Bluebeard's Castle is an opera in one act with a libretto in Hungarian by Béla Balázs which is inspired by the French story Ariane et Barbe-bleue by Charles Perrault and the drama by the Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. Composed by Bartók in 1911, it was performed in 1918 at the Budapest Opera House. The story takes place in an undefined period in the dark room of a castle and features Bluebeard and his new wife Judith who wants to know everything about him and for this reason asks him to let him open the seven locked doors in his home. Through the instruments of torture, the weapons, the treasures, the garden, the grounds, the lake of tears she finds in each room and the discovery of her three previous hidden wives, Judith faces her destiny as a prisoner in the castle together with the others. The work, influenced above all by impressionism and partly by expressionism, already presents one of Bartòk's most profound poetic motifs: that of mystery. Indeed, the sinister Bluebeard castle symbolizes the mysterious and unfathomable human soul.

Director: Johannes Erath
Writer: Music by Giacomo Puccini
Cast: MICHELE, A BARGE-OWNER Luca Salsi / Sebastian Catana, LUIGI, STEVEDORE Gregory Kunde, GIORGETTA, MICHELE’S WIFE Maria Agresta, ‘TINCA’ Didier Pieri, ‘TALPA’ Roberto Lorenzi, ‘FRUGOLA’, TALPA’S WIFE Enkelejda Shkoza.