The opera will make its premiere on Saturday, February 16 and continue staging for three other consecutive evenings at the Opera House at 19.00
TIRANA, Feb. 11 – Puccini’s Tosca, an opera in three acts containing some of the best-known lyrical arias by the renowned early 20th century Italian composer is coming as a premiere at the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet which this year marks its 60th anniversary. Directed by Albania’s Nikolin Gurakuqi, the opera will bring on stage Eva Golemi and Marjana Leka, two of Albania’s best sopranos. Italian tenor Leonardo Gramegna has also been invited to perform in the opera which will make its premiere on Saturday, February 16 and continue staging for three other consecutive evenings at the Opera House at 19.00. The chorus of the Opera House and pupils of the “Jordan Misja” arts school will be accompanied by the symphonic orchestra.
An opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, Tosca premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome in January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou’s 1887 French-language dramatic play, La Tosca, is a melodramatic piece set in Rome in June 1800, with the Kingdom of Naples’s control of Rome threatened by Napoleon’s invasion of Italy. It contains depictions of torture, murder and suicide, yet also includes some of Puccini’s best-known lyrical arias, and has inspired memorable performances from many of opera’s leading singers.
Musically, Tosca is structured as a through-composed work, with arias, recitative, choruses and other elements musically woven into a seamless whole. The dramatic force of Tosca and its characters continues to fascinate both performers and audiences, and the work remains one of the most frequently performed operas.
The premiere comes soon after Vivaldi’s Skanderbeg, an Italian-Albanian coproduction also made its premiere at the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet in late 2012. The opera made its premiere on November 18, few months after the stage of the Skanderbeg opera by Albanian composer Prenk Jakova. Scanderbeg, an opera in three acts composed by Antonio Vivaldi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Salvi, was first performed at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence on June 22, 1718 to mark the re-opening of the theatre to public performances.
Back in December 2011 Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot premiered at the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Tirana. Directed by Nicola Zorzi, and under the baton of Edmond Doko, the opera came as an Italian-Albanian cooperation.
The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet, which this year marks its 60th anniversary is the largest theatre in Albania and is home to an opera and ballet ensemble. The theatre was founded in 1953 and is a repertory theatre, which also regularly offers premi鳥s of operas by Albanian composers.
Zhani Ciko, the director of the Opera House, says this year’s programme will be dedicated to the most renowned pieces staged during the Opera’s 60-year existence and the 200th birth anniversary of Italy’s most renowned composer Giuseppe Verdi.
Verdi’s La Traviata
Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviatta will come in a special premiere early next march to honour the twelve Albanian lead performers in the history of the Albanian Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The opera will stage from March 7 to 10 in an Albanian-Italian cooperation on the 200th birth anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi, Italy’s most renowned composer.
The last time Verdi’s La Traviata staged at the National Theatre of Opera was in April 2011 Directed by Nikolin Gurakuqi, the Opera House’s symphonic orchestra was conducted by Greek American conductor Peter Tiboris with Albanian sopranos Eva Golemi and Ramona Tullumani starring. Italian tenor Fabio Andreotti and Albania’s Armando Kllogjeri also performed in the popular opera.
La Traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camꭩas (1852), a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title “La traviata” means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman Who Goes Astray. It was originally entitled Violetta, after the main character.
