An opera where the prima donna is a baritone? Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali is an excessively long and daunting title for an opera of such unrestrained delight. That is likely what German film director Helmut Käutner thought when he renamed it Viva la mamma in the famous 1969 adaptation for the rococo Cuvilliés theatre in Munich, changing the history of this work forever. First seen in Naples in 1827, this farce of a “theatre within a theatre” narrates the mishaps of a second-rate opera company as it stages the great serious drama Romolo ed Ersilia in a provincial theatre. The unbearable tensions between the two lead singers are finally resolved with the decisive intervention of one of their mothers. The co-production by Ópera de Lyon shared with the Grand Theâtre de Genève and Teatro Real is brought to life by Laurent Pelly, a tireless champion of Donizettis comedies, as one recalls from his production of La fille du régiment which we enjoyed some seasons ago.
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Dramma giocoso in two acts
Music by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
Libretto by Domenico Gilardoni, based on the works Le convenienze teatrali (1794) and Le inconvenienze teatrali (1800) by Antonio Simeone Sografi
Premiered at the Teatro Nuovo of Naples on the 21st of November, 1827, and in the composer's revised version at the Teatro alla Cannobiana of Milan on the 20th of April, 1831
Premiere at the Teatro Real
Production of the Teatro Real, in co-production with the Opéra National de Lyon and the Grand Théâtre de Genève
Titular Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real
Artistic team
Conductor | Evelino Pidò
Stage Director and Costume Designer | Laurent Pelly
Set Designer | Chantal Thomas
Light Designer | Joël Adam
Chorus Master | Andrés Máspero
Cast
Daria, prima donna | Nino Machaidze
Procolo, Daria's husband | Borja Quiza
Biscroma Stappaviscere, conductor | Pietro di Bianco
Agata, the mother | Carlos Álvarez
Luigia, seconda donna | Sylvia Schwartz
Guglielmo, primo tenore | Xabier Anduaga
Pippetto | Carol García
Cesare Salsapariglia, the poet I Enric Martínez-Castignani
Impresario I David Oller
Director of the theatre | Luis López Navarro
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