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The people behind it
Mariella Devia
Donna Lucrezia Borgia
Michele Pertusi
Alfonso Duca di Ferrara
Marcelo Álvarez
Gennaro
Daniela Barcellona
Maffio Orsini
Carlo Bosi
Jeppo Liverotto
Piero Terranova
Don Apostolo Gazella
Alessandro Svab
Gubetta
Iorio Zennaro
Rustighello
Ernesto Panariello
Una voce
Eldar Aliev
Astolfo
Andrea Chénier, Umberto Giordano's masterpiece, a title that opens the Piermarini's 2017/2018 opera season, returns to La Scala in Milan after a 32-year absence. A highly anticipated event, not only because of the debut in the role of Magdalena by superstar soprano Anna Netrebko (thus marking her third season opener at La Scala, following 2011's Don Giovanni and 2015's Giovanna d'Arco) but also because of the La Scala debut of Yusif Eyvazov (Mrs. Netrebko's spouse, who has been keeping the Piermarini's gallery apprehensive for months now) and for the new direction signed by Mario Martone, who with Margherita Palli (composer of the sets) return to La Scala's handling of an opera by Umberto Giordano, after the success in May 2016 of their Cena delle Beffe.
In 15th-century Venice, Jacopo Foscari, son of the Doge of Venice Francesco Foscari, is to be tried by the Council of Ten for a crime of which he claims to be innocent. The Foscari family’s sworn enemy, the vindictive Jacopo Loredano, treacherously secures his sentence of exile. Despite the pleas of Lucrezia, Jacopo’s wife, the unfortunate father is forced to sign his son’s banishment order, even though he is convinced of his innocence. The young man dies of despair just before the real murderer comes forward. Loredano secures the removal of Francesco Foscari, who collapses, lifeless. "I due Foscari" is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, which premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on 3 November 1844.
One of the composer's most beguiling scores, La Favorite is Gaetano Donizetti's La favorita in it's original French form; a tale of love and war that represents a glorious mix of Italian bel canto and 19th c. grand opera. Vincent Boussard's arresting Toulouse production does full justice to this newly renewed masterpiece. Three international principals take on the work's demanding roles: Chinese tenor Yijie Shi is a 'revelation' as Fernand, the rich-toned, authoritative French baritone Ludovic Tezier as King Alphonse XI and lauded American mezzo Kate Aldrich - 'the Carmen of this generation' - plumbing the emotional depths of Leonor's music. Conductor and bel canto specialist Antonello Allemandi adds to the passionate proceedings onstage. Maestro Allemandi demonstrated full authority over the stage for the musically complex scenes, and in the arias and duets demonstrated his confidence in the singers by establishing ample tempos to support their soaring vocal lines.
Gennaro, the son of Lucretia Borgia, lives unaware of the identity of his mother, who has married the Duke of Ferrara. After Lucretia's brother is killed by five conspirators, the fathers of Gennaro's dearest friends, Lucretia tortures the old men to death. Later, Gennaro and his companions journey to Lucretia's domain, and she sees her son for the first time. The Duke, who believes him to be her lover, poisons him, but Lucretia administers the antidote in time and saves his life. Then she schemes to poison her sons' five friends for their fathers' mistake.
The incredible story of Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519), daughter of Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503), deliberately used politically by her powerful family and historically slandered as a poisoner and incestuous femme fatale. But who was the real Lucrezia?
Six Italian directors explore contemporary Milan in a rich and eclectic portrait of urban life and spaces—both rooted in history and bursting with a diversity of architecture and humanity.
In the winter of 1943, deep in the frozen waste of German occupied Yugoslavia, a lone parachute drifts from the snowy skies, falling ever closer to earth and a waiting German patrol car. Suddenly shots ring out from a hidden sniper, the Germans are killed, and the parachutist scurries away into the forest. The sniper is a woman, the number one partisan terrorist on the German hit list, and her adversary is the German number one exterminator sent direct from berlin to eliminate her. The battle is on, orders from high command - capture her… alive. Both are professional, but now the hunter becomes the hunted.
Paul, a non-believer in life on other planets, late one night discovers a crash-landed and wounded alien. He rescues the being and is initiated into a psycho-sexual metamorphosis.
A European countess, after being betrayed by her lover, goes to live in small town Middle America with her cousins and causes havoc among the rather puritanical community members.
A haphazard party-ride to Mexico evolves into an enigma with a fugitive alien at the helm.
For eight weeks, Esther becomes a foster parent, taking in an 8-year-old boy who has come to France, exhausted, to undergo open-heart surgery. This experience will turn her life upside down and affect her relationships with those around her, including her brother, her teenage son, and her work as an architect.
Harvey, an old man from Scotland lives with his young son and daughter in an isolated house in Patagonia. Upon arrival of the emissaries of a development corporation he promptly stands against them by building a large fence (alambrado). A debut rich with sensibility and violent physicality, an unusual film of wind, isolation, loneliness, desolation ... and madness.
An allegory of the Golem, a Jewish mythical creature personifying displacement and exile, this film tells the story of a woman (similar to the biblical Ruth) and her sisters, who are forced into exile after the death of their husbands. It is set in 1990s Paris, where the director was living in self-imposed exile following the ban on his 1982 documentary in Israel. The recurring theme of the film is migrations and unrooting, like the legendary Golem.
Directed by Caradog W. James and based on the play 'Flesh and Blood' by Helen Griffin, 'Little White Lies' deals with the paranoia of racism, the politics of hate and how these things threaten to tear one family apart. The father is an armchair politician who never leaves the house, the daughter has a new boyfriend that she won't bring home to meet her parents and the son has just become an active member of the BNP. The only person in the family trying to hold it all together is the mother, who just wants everyone to get along.
Second half of the 19th century. In a small town in South Bohemia, fifth-former Jan Ratkin is living through the confusions of first love together with his classmates.
A delightfully classic French comedy of high sophistication and light hearted wit, that in the end suffers for it. This is immensely watchable simply for the presence of Maria De Medeiros, the central two of the film are captivating. What spoils it is the stereotypical and under developed second characters and an overly wistful outlook. But I defy any man watching this film not to fall madly for Aimee and everyone will cherish the scenes between Aimee and Maurice.
The true-life story of Christian music star Jeremy Camp and his journey of love and loss that looks to prove there is always hope.
While waiting for the brain surgery of his daughter Angela, victim of a motorcycle accident, the surgeon Timoteo recalls his torrid affair with and passion for Italia, a simple woman from slums in the periphery of the big city where he lives. The ghost of the beloved and sexual object of desire Italia chases him in his memories.
After the death of her mother, Sara moves to the South Side of Chicago to live with her father and gets transferred to a majority-black school. Her life takes a turn for the better when befriends Chenille and her brother Derek, who helps her with her dancing skills.
Zander Raines, a dazzling and tempestuous young choreographer, gives the break of a lifetime to two hopeful artists when he casts a stunning contemporary dancer, Barlow, and innovative pianist, Charlie, in New York’s most-anticipated new Broadway show: Free Dance. But the move throws off the show’s delicate creative balance when Charlie falls hard for Barlow, while Zander embraces her as his muse.
When madly in love high school graduates Riley and Chris are separated by a tragic car accident, Riley blames herself for her boyfriend's death while Chris is stranded in limbo. Miraculously, the two find a way to connect. In a love story that transcends life and death, both Riley and Chris are forced to learn the hardest lesson of all: letting go.
In order to win the Street Dance Championships, a dance crew is forced to work with ballet dancers from the Royal Dance School in exchange for rehearsal space.
All self-taught dancer Kate Parker has ever wanted to do was perform with the American Academy of Ballet. But when she doesnt make it after auditioning, she learns that it takes more than precision and perfection to succeed in the dance world.
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Georgie is slowly suffocating in a loveless marriage to fishing tycoon Jim Buckridge. Handsome poacher Lu is an irresistible symbol of the excitement she craves. A passionate affair follows that reveals the dark secrets in Lu’s past and forces him to take flight into the blistering heat of the outback. Georgie follows, determined to find him and bring him back.
An expat PI is hired to investigate a suspicious death in Crete, Greece, where jealousies run deep amongst the victim's powerful family.
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
When a hip hop violinist busking in the New York subway encounters a classical dancer on scholarship at the Manhattan Conservatory of the Arts, sparks fly. With the help of a hip hop dance crew they must find a common ground while preparing for a competition that could change their lives forever.
In this contemporary take on William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, the Montagues and Capulets have moved their ongoing feud to the sweltering suburb of Verona Beach, where Romeo and Juliet fall in love and secretly wed. Though the film is visually modern, the bard's dialogue remains.
Based on Victor Hugo's famed novel, the story of Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame, and his unrequited love for the gypsy girl, Esmeralda.
A disfigured musical genius, hidden away in the Paris Opera House, terrorises the opera company for the unwitting benefit of a young protégée whom he trains and loves. The 25th anniversary of the first public performance of Phantom of the Opera was celebrated with a grand performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
A middle-aged man meets a young woman who is waiting on a canal bridge for her lover's return.
A talented singer leaves the Atlanta music scene and starts over in small-town Tennessee, where she finds love and new purpose but can't escape the past.
Pregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.
In the 1930s, British officer John Truscott journeys to a remote village in colonial Malaysia to educate and Westernize the local Iban population. There, he's introduced to the lovely Selima. In keeping with tradition, Selima is assigned to sleep with Truscott and teach him the native language and customs. But when they fall in love, both colonists and natives object to their plans to marry.
Ren MacCormack is transplanted from Boston to the small southern town of Bomont where loud music and dancing are prohibited. Not one to bow to the status quo, Ren challenges the ban, revitalizing the town and falling in love with the minister’s troubled daughter Ariel in the process.
