Potrebno je da imate instaliran Flash Player 8.

Madam Butterfly

Ancona-2002.jpgOPERA
Giacomo Puccini
Madam Butterfly

As a story on a cyber-geisha girl

„Cyber space“, „Real time“, „War craft“ – are the expressions of a new young century that are the marks of reality, which has by far become virtual. A notion that such terms may find their place in opera, an old art, and that one can make „an interactive opera located in real time“, has till recently seemed impossible and particularly unimaginable in Belgrade. However, Opera and Theatre Madlenianum has already by Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann shown that opera can – even with a great success – step into the world of cartoon and anti-utopian films. Now, under the guidance of the same director, Dejan Miladinovic, at Madlenianum stage enter the cyber-geisha girl Cio-Cio-San and virtual Pinkerton.

An opera usually starts with an overture, but in the new Madlenianum’s staging of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly there will be foreplay, too. At the stage we first see a boy who makes on his computer his ideal character of a navy officer from America who is called Pinkerton and is all that which the boy is not: he is tall, good-looking, dressed in an attractive uniform. On the other side of the stage and on the other side of the world, a distressed woman turns on her computer and forms her character of a cyber-geisha girl in the same way as the boy does. The name of the geisha girl is Cio-Cio-San. In this spectacle we had the guest performers from the USA: Ai-Lan Zhu, the star of American stages, Chinese by origin, in the role of Cio-Cio-San and Marcello Bedoni, who sang the role of Pinkerton, and the conductor of the new staging of one of the most renowned operatic love stories was Stanko Jovanovic, who has already proved his proficiency in the performances The Two Widows by Bedrich Smetana and La Traviata by Guiseppe Verdi.
 
The première – or, better to say, an interactive play in which all spectators participated – was scheduled for 13th May, and the second showing for 15th May 2007.

Music, dance, Japanese cartoons „Mange“ and modern technologies. All that has once again confirmed that opera is an amalgamation of all known arts and – that it is everlastingly young.

On the opening of the 2009/2010 season, after great success in La Scala, Daniela Dessi and Fabio Armiliato will sing again together in unforgettable Puccini's opera hit "Madama Butterfly", on October 5th in Opera & Theatre Madlenianum.

Daniela-Dessi.jpgDaniela Dessi as Cio-Cio-San

With an impressive repertoire which includes seventy operatic works, Daniela Dessì is confirmed as one of the most important sopranos on the current opera scene. With a solid international career her performances and recordings are a reference for the whole Verdi repertoire as well as the Verist and Puccini repertoire. Born in Genoa, like her partner, the tenor Fabio Armiliato, she trained at the Arrigo Boito Academy in Parma (singing and piano), qualifying later on at the Chigiana Academy in Siena.
In 1980 she won her first award at the International Competition of RAI and made her début with La serva padrona (Pergolesi). Thus she began her spectacular career performing in the most important theatres and festivals worldwide, showing a deep aesthetic capability ranging from Monteverdi to Prokofiev, with a particular specialisation in Mozart. Currently she is considered to be the best interpreter of the Verist repertoire.
Her presence is constantly requested on the most prestigious stages such as the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, the Regio in Turin, the Carlo Felice in Genoa, the San Carlo, Naples, the Comunale in Bologne, La Fenice, Venice, the Verona Arena, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Florence, the Massimo in Palermo, the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, the Lyric Opera House, Chicago, San Francisco Opera House, Los Angeles Opera House, the Staatsoper in Vienna, Deutsche Opera in Berlin, Bayersiche Staatsoper in Munich, the Opernhaus, Zurich, the Teatro Real, Madrid, the Liceu in Barcelona, the Maestranza, Seville, Bilbao Ópera House, Oviedo Opera House and a many, many more which include the most important theatres in Tokyo, Nagasaki, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya and Sapporo – she being the first soprano to play the role of Butterfly in these numerous Japanese cities and in theatres such as the Opera Theatre in Seoul (Korea) and in the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Saltzburg Festival, Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, Festival of the Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, etc.

In her thirty year career, thanks to a flawless talent and to an extraordinary dramatic instinct, Daniela Dessì has collaborated with the most influential conductors of her generation, such as Riccardo Muti (Don Carlos, Falstaff, Verdi´s Requiem, Così fan tutte and Nozze di Figaro), Claudio Abbado (Simon Boccanegra, Don Carlos), James Levine (Pagliacci, Bohème and Andrea Chénier), Giuseppe Sinopoli (Aida, Verdi´s Requiem), Daniele Gatti (Tosca, Aida, Falstaff and Don Carlos), Zubin Mehta (Falstaff, Verdi´s Requiem, Tosca and Don Giovanni); Gianluigi Gelmetti (Iris, Guglielmo Tell, Il Trittico, (she is the first performer in Italy to sing all the three feminine characters); Bruno Campanella (Cappello di Paglia di Firenze, L’elisir d’Amore, Ernani), Bruno Bartoletti (Mefistofele, La Cena delle beffe, Luisa Miller, Pagliacci, Tosca, Simon Boccanegra, Butterfly, Aida); Nicolas Harnoncourt (Aida); Gustav Kuhn (Falstaff, La Traviata, La Bohème); Riccardo Chailly (Don Giovanni, Falstaff, Rossini´s Petite Messe Solemnelle), Lorin Maazel (Tosca, Turandot), Carlos Kleiber (La Bohème), etc., in productions with directors of the standing of Franco Zeffirelli, Luca Ronconi, PierLuigi Pizzi, Roberto de Simone, Giorgio Strelher etc.

Her touching Madama Butterfly in the Verona Arena and her unforgettable tour performing Tosca in Japan with the Rome Opera (garnering 45 minutes of applause), are only few of her successes in the most recent seasons, to which we can include her interpretation as Manon Lescaut (directed by Liliana Cavani and conducted by Renato Palumbo) in the Liceu in Barcelona and in the Staatsoper, Vienna, Don Carlo in Zurich, Adriana Lecouvreur at La Scala in Milan, Tosca in Munich, Ernani in Turin. Her return to Barcelona as Maddalena of Andrea Chénier for the opening of the season 2007-08 has been a further success with audience and critics alike, followed by Manon Lescaut and Tosca in Vienna, Venice, Verona and Torre del Lago, her long-awaited and sensational début in Norma in Bologna, La Bohème and La fanciulla del West in Rome and an amazing début as Leonora in La forza del destino in Montecarlo.

Her season 2008-2009 began with Tosca in Florence (where the continuous applause obliged her to give an encore of “Vissi d’arte” - it has been 52 years since this happened to Renata Tebaldi). Her performances in 2008-2009 include Tosca at the Verdi Theatre in Trieste, Adriana Lecouvreur in Palermo, Fanciulla del West in Seville, Manon Lescaut in Warsaw, Madama Butterfly in Hannover and Aida in Verona and Cagliari, and she closes the season in Barcelona playing Liù in Turandot. The 2009 season begins with Manon Lescaut at the George Enescu Festival in Bucarest, Ernani at the Zürich Opernhaus and Madama Butterfly in Beograd.

During her career she has received several awards from different Musical Associations such as the Premio Abbiati in 2009 (the italian Oscar in the world of classical music), the Zenatello Arena di Verona, the Giordano in Baveno, the Giacomo Puccini association in Torre del Lago, the Cilea in Reggio Calabria, the Gigli d’Oro in Recanati, the Liguria in Genoa, the E. Mazzoleni in Palerm, the Mascagni d’Oro in Bagnara di Romagna, the Regina della Lirica of the Association Tiberini in San Lorenzo in Campo and the Le Muse Prize in 2007 at the Academy delle Muse in Florence. A large discography and a very sizeable collection of opera works on video and DVD are the testimonial to her devotion to tuition, which has led her to offer master classes in important Music Academies.
Further to all this, has taken an important role in various television programmes dedicated to the popularization of the operatic art.


(1)-Fabio-Armiliato.jpgFabio Armiliato as Pinkerton

Fabio Armiliato was born in Genoa and trained at the Niccoló Paganini Music Academy in his city of birth. He was a prize-winner in the Concorso Internazionale Tito Schipa in Lecce and in the Concorso Internazionale Pavia Lirica, making his debut in 1984 playing the character of Adorno in Simon Boccanegra at the Carlo Felice Theatre, Genoa. This was the beginning of an international and fast-moving career, which brought him to play the most important tenor roles in the most prestigious theatres worldwide. In the following years, he made his debut in several international theatres and festivals (Wexford, Parma, Zürich, Rome, Stuttgart, Palermo, Jerusalem, Frankfurt, Antwerp, Marseille, Montpellier, at the Opera in Paris and in Genoa) performing a wide repertoire from 1988 and 1992 including Il Trovatore, Un ballo in maschera, Ernani, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Cavalleria Rusticana, Verdi´s Requiem, La Bohème, Don Carlos, Aida and Carmen.
In 1993 he performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the first time in Verdi´s Il Trovatore, appearing later on in the most prestigious American opera houses in Aida, Cavalleria Rusticana, Simon Boccanegra, Fedora, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Carmen. Other important landmarks in his career have been the debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1995, interpreting the role of Faust in Boito´s Mefistofele conducted by Riccardo Muti and returning during the following years in Madama Butterfly, Tosca and Adriana Lecouvreur. He also performed Adriana Leucouvreur, Tosca and Mefistofele at the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires; Aida and Il Trovatore at the San Francisco Opera; La Bohème and Un Ballo in Maschera, Aida, Simon Boccanegra and Manon Lescaut at Teatro Regio, Parma. With Un Ballo in Maschera in 1998 he made a debut at the Wiener Staatsoper where he will return in Turandot, Don Carlo, Carmen, Mefistofele and Ernani.
The ensuing years held non-stop personal triumphs and important achievements such as debuting as Andrea Chénier in Nice in 2000 with Daniela Dessì at his side. In this role critics have defined him as “the best Chénier of our times” (G.C. Landini, L'Opera) and in January 2007 his performance in Turandot, conducted by Valery Gherghiev in Baden-Baden, was a huge success.

The season 2007/2008 confirmed him as a main player on the international scene with many successes and personal achievements such as performing in Andrea Chénier in Barcelona, following up with a sensational performance as Alvaro in La Forza del Destino at the Opera of Monte Carlo, La Fanciulla del West in Rome, Norma in Bologna, Tosca in Wiesbaden, Venice and in Torre del Lago as part of the Festival Pucciniano to celebrate the opening of the new outdoor Theatre.

Season 2008/09 began with similar great success playing Don Carlo in Dresden. In the Cavalleria Rusticana in Florence he gave a sensational performance of Turiddu, noted both for his vocal skills and for his exceptional and intense stage presence. After the big Puccini celebration at the Teatro Filarmonico, Verona, where we can assure you he gave an unforgettable concert alongside Daniela Dessì, he once more played the leading role of Cavaradossi in Tosca which opened the operatic season of the Teatro Verdi, Trieste. Adriana Lecouvreur in Palermo, Fanciulla del West in Seville, Manon Lescaut in Warsaw, Madama Butterfly in Hannover and Aida at the very next opening season in the Verona Arena followed.
The 2009/2010 season begins with Manon Lescaut at the George Enescu Festival in Bucarest, followed by Madama Butterfly in Beograd.

Among all the prestigious awards he has received in recent years, most renowned are the Galliano Masini Prize in Livorno, the Gigli d'Oro awarded by the Association Beniamino Gigli of Recanati and the Region Liguria Prize for his artistic merits. He has also been awarded the A. Pertile Prize in the first year of this competition in Asti, the Cilea Prize in Reggio Calabria and most recently the glamorous Mazzoleni Prize in Palermo. 

 


Dejan Miladinovic, Director  

He was born into a family of opera artists. He graduated in theatre directing and received his MA degree in theatrical arts from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. He served as the Principal Stage Director of Opera and Drama, and then as the Artistic Director of the Opera at the Serbian National Theatre of Novi Sad. He has also served as the Artistic Counselor with the "Sava" Center in Belgrade. Soon he has become the Stage Director of Belgrade National Opera and then, at the proposal of the whole opera ensemble, he has accepted the position as Artistic Director of Belgrade National Opera. Dejan Miladinovic is currently holding the position of the Artistic Director of Opera and Theatre Madlenianum. He also was the Associate Professor and Artistic Director of Opera Theatre at Meadows School of Arts in Dallas (USA),  the Associate Professor of acting and operatic study at the Faculty of Music Arts, Belgrade, and Associate Professor of acting and theatre directing at Thornton School, Southern California (USA). He has staged more than 150 productions in former Yugoslavia and the USA: New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Seattle, Baltimore, Los Angeles etc.