As part of the celebration of November 1 - Day of the Montenegrin National Theater last night, the musical and stage work "L'altro Giacomo - The Man and the Artist", directed by Renato Raimo, was performed on the big stage.
"It is a special pleasure that in the Montenegrin National Theater we had the opportunity to host the most important Italian and European artists in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Italy in Podgorica, who were greeted by the audience with long-lasting applause and ovations. In this way, the national theater joined the global celebration centenary of the death of Giacomo Puccini, one of the greatest opera composers in history, and confirmed the importance of international cooperation in culture," said CNP director Ilija Subotić.
The audience in the Great Hall accepted the story of the other side of the personality of the great Đacomo Puccini, masterfully portrayed by Ranato Raimo with his directorial solutions, but also with his acting skills. In his performance, Raimo focused more on Puccini's emotional side, always eager for love and new excitement, and with a good dose of humor presented to the audience the stories of three women who marked the cult composer's private life.
Puccini's wife Elvira was portrayed convincingly and with a lot of empathy by the actress Chiara Maria Battaglia. However, she points out that it was challenging to play the role of a woman who, because of her love for Puccini, decided to leave her then-husband and their child.
"This role entrusted to me by Renato is very important to me. Elvira is a strong woman who opposed the era in which she lived. It was hard, but I tried to love her. As a mother, I thought about how I would feel if I fell so madly in love with a man like Puccini and decided to abandon my child. It's a huge suffering, but I was looking for a way to convey on stage that suffering and the feelings of this incredibly strong woman who decided to completely change her life. I felt a huge audience interaction with standing ovations and applause. The audience accepted and understood the emotions we wanted to convey to them," she said.
This musical-scenic work is filled with famous Puccini compositions performed by exceptional artists from Italy who perfectly complement the performance of Raimo and Battaglia. Puccini's works were performed on the piano by Carlo Bernini, otherwise the music director, composer and conductor of Andrea Bocelli.
"If the value of the compositions that Giacomo Puccini offered to the world were more appreciated, there would be more music and less wars. We are performing this show all over Italy and we are starting a European tour. This is not a special project only for Montenegro, but for the culture of the whole world," said Bernini.
Soprano Rachael Jane Stellacci and tenor Davide Piaggio brought a diverse repertoire of Puccini's compositions from different operas to the CNP stage.
"I have the role of Musetta, who is very relaxed, happy and cheerful, and on the other hand Madame Butterfly, who is very dramatic and tragic. For me, the challenge is to interpret them well using a demanding technique, because maestro Puccini wrote beautiful, but very demanding music. It was a really emotional experience for me to sing for the Montenegrin audience," Stellacci said.
Tenor Piaggio had the demanding singing and acting task of portraying the characters from Manon Lescaut, all the way to Turandot.
"Maestro Renato Raimo is a great performer and I can really imagine singing for Giacomo Puccini. This collaboration was a surprise and a great success for me, because the way the work approaches the audience and combines lyrics and prose is demanding. Here we breathe different energies and it is an opportunity for great expressiveness," said Piaggio.
Yesterday's CNP Day celebration for Subotić was an opportunity to remember the successes and results from the previous period, but also to announce the implementation of other programs and projects in the 71st season, which marks the National Theater's eighth decade of operation.
"The jubilee 70th season was very referential and very meaningful. We had six premieres, organized significant projects of music and music-stage activity, along with numerous complementary activities. In general, we realized close to 150 programs, which were seen by almost 30.000 visitors.
In the coming period, the audience can expect significant programs and projects at the CNP - first of all, the premiere of the play "Naličje", an author's project by director Boris Liješević, on November 6 at the Big Stage.
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