Until 10 Nov 2004. Conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti, directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi, with Daniela Barcellona, Mariella Devia, Raul Gimenez, Giacinta Nicotra.

Opera Notes

Venices great theatre, La Fenice, has finally come back to life. After its official opening last December, followed by a years closure for final checks and controls, the first season of the new Fenice is finally under way, with a more interesting programme than ever before. The first opera to be staged is Verdis La Traviata (12-20 Nov). Names to note include Lorin Maazel and Robert Carsen. The former is a fine conductor with excellent technical preparation who seldom appears in Italy. The latter, no less famous, is an ingenious director who is very active in Italy; remember his production last year of Handels Orlando in Reggio Emilia and Poulencs Dialogues des Carmlites in Milan, both great successes. The protagonist of La Traviata is Patrizia Ciofi, a soprano who stunned everyone in Pesaro in August with her beautiful interpretation of Amenaide in Rossinis Tancredi. For information tel. 041786575, www.teatrofenice.it.

This same production of Rossinis Tancredi will be in Rome (2-10 Nov), with staging and costumes by Pier Luigi Pizzi. The conductor is Gianluigi Gelmetti who has often performed this opera and has a special feeling for its neo-classical atmosphere. The protagonists are Daniela Barcellona (Tancredi) and Mariella Devia (Amenaide), who, like Gelmetti, know the opera very well. Both of them are expert Rossini singers and also expert singers of this opera. Tel. 0648160255-064817003, fax 064881755, www.operaroma.it.

The Teatro delle Muse of Ancona opens its season with an attractive coupling of two 20th century operas: The Flood by Stravinsky and LEnfant et les Sortilges by Ravel (5, 7, 9 Nov). The first, composed in 1963, was Stravinskys last opera; it tells the story of the construction of Noahs ark, of the flood and of the final peaceful accord between God and man. It is a rarely-heard work. The second was written in 1925 and recounts the fantastical world of childhood, where objects are animated and animals talk. The works share the same conductor, Yoram David and the same director, Daniele Abbado. www.teatrodellemuse.org. For ticket office, tel. 07152525, fax 07152622. Paolo Di Nicola