Gaetano, Gioppino e l’Elisir d’amore

Dramaturgy, texts and puppets by Daniele Cortesi
With Daniele Cortesi and his puppets
Tenor Giovanni Dragano
Accordionist Gino Zambelli
Verse by Felice Romani
Music by Gaetano Donizetti

THE SHOW.
Daniele Cortesi’s play tries to explain, with freedom and imagination, how the inspiration for composing L’elisir d’amore might have originated in Gaetano Donizetti, and it ventures the not impossible friendship between the composer Gaetano Donizetti and the character of Gioppino Zuccalunga, both from Bergamo and both born in the late 18th century. The story takes place in Bergamo, in places dear to his fellow citizens: the charming Piazza Vecchia and the beautiful theater that, many years later, was dedicated to the Bergamasque musician himself. To comment live on the scenes, the most famous arias from L’Elisir, played live and sung by a tenor, provide an evocative accompaniment. A truly choral comedy, in which the characters of Gaetano Donizetti and his future wife Virginia play the roles of Nemorino and Adina, respectively, the protagonists of the melodramma giocoso L’elisir d’amore. Gaetano Donizetti, a young and very shy composer, falls in love with the beautiful Virginia who, like him, adores music. His friend Gioppino incites the composer to declare his love, perhaps dedicating a sweet serenade to the girl, but…

CLASSROOM WORKSHOP
The very young audience participates in a 90-minute in-school workshop in preparation for the opera to learn the choruses.

• PLACE: Ridotto Gavazzeni – Donizetti Theater
• DATE: April 2, 2025 – 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
• DURATION: 90 minutes – workshop // 1 hour – performance
• COST: € 11 including workshop, ticket and teaching materials

Tano di Lammermoor

A project by Manuel Renga and Simone Dini Gandini
Dramaturgy by Simone Dini Gandini
Directed by Manuel Renga
With Daniele Cortesi and his puppets
And with Leonardo Moroni, Roberto Dibitonto, Francesca Longa
Musical supervision by Alberto Zanardi

THE SHOW.
Little Tano (a very young Gaetano Donizetti) is 7 years old and has a stormy temper. A quarrel with his parents is just around the corner: this time the cause of his anger is his refusal to eat spinach and his demand to eat only and exclusively cake. So what? To bed without dinner.
So far nothing new in the Donizetti household, but what’s going on in Tano’s bedroom?
The young musician vents all his anger on his toys: he puts on his daddy’s jacket, draws a mustache and starts giving orders left and right. He forces the beautiful Lucia (a beautiful puppet) to marry the villainous Lord Bucklaw (a puppet with a wicked grin), forces the Colonel (a Scottish puppet with a multi-decorated grin) to guard Lammermoor Castle, and finally charges his musician puppet, forcing him to play continuously.
But the toys have a secret: they are alive! Until now, the Rule of Rules had never been violated; it dictates that no toy can be seen alive by human children.
After a series of vicissitudes and anguish, the rule is broken and Gaetano finds himself talking, reasoning and arguing with his toys: together with them he will go on a journey of growth that will lead him to understand that obligations and deception are never a good idea and that everyone has rights but also duties.
So while eating (not without effort) spinach, he will allow Lucia to meet and marry her lover Edgardo. Who knows if, impressed by the magical events of that night, Tano will decide to devote himself to music and write a beautiful opera dedicated precisely to Lucia di Lammermoor.

CLASSROOM WORKSHOP
The very young audience participates in a 90-minute in-school workshop in preparation for the opera to learn the choruses.

• PLACE: Ridotto Gavazzeni – Donizetti Theater
• DATE: May 20 and 21, 2025 – 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
• DURATION: 90 minutes – workshop // 1 hour – performance
• COST: € 11 including workshop, ticket and teaching materials

Meet Gaetano

Taking a cue from Gaetano’s life, the places and habits of the young musician, we are immersed in a musical, historical, visual, vocal and bodily experience all to be experienced in the first person.
Ti presento Gaetano is a project that links the discovery of Donizetti’s Città Alta and the places where he grew up to a musical and vocal workshop. A double journey to discover Gaetano as a master of emotions.
The interactive visit to Casa Natale and Teatro Sociale, exclusively open, comes alive with narrative moments both about the figure of the composer and the world of opera. A real journey possible thanks to the urban layout of the Upper Town still identical to that of Gaetano’s time.
The workshop starting with vocal and body tuning leads participants to sing and stage short pieces of famous Operas by Gaetano Donizetti. The proposals are structured to accommodate children of different age groups from kindergarten to Primary and Secondary school.

The experience includes access to Casa Natale and Teatro Sociale based on space availability and at the discretion of the Donizetti Theatre Foundation.

• PLACE: Birthplace and/or Social Theater (depending on space availability)
• DATES: January to May 2025 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
• DURATION: 3 hours (up to 2 classes at a time)
• COST: € 100 per class

“Donizetti Education” training day 2024|2025

Project carried out in collaboration with Territorial School Office

For many years, the Donizetti Theater Foundation has offered training sessions for teachers of schools of all levels, from kindergarten to high school.

Educational meetings have always been held in extracurricular hours, using in-person and online workshops and lectures, and often making use of particle sessions in singing and music, as well as manual skills for the lower school orders and in collaboration with ATS and psychological operators and educators for adolescents, aiming for multidisciplinarity and fluency of skills. Participation has always been very high, especially among compulsory school teachers who numbered 150 in the current school year. The training sessions have always been designed in preparation for students’ participation in the performances offered by the Donizetti Theater Foundation, with the aim of providing teachers with the teaching tools and notions to then be able to personally work in the classroom with their students. In recent years, however, the need has arisen to expand the educational offerings for teachers, creating an opportunity for them as potential users of the Foundation’s artistic proposals, but also as protagonists in the education of young audiences.

For this reason, for the 2024/2025 school year, the Donizetti Theater Foundation has decided to offer an intensive day of unified training, aimed at all teachers of all grade levels, with the purpose of providing notions and teaching tools to all teachers who intend to broaden their interest in opera and Gaetano Donizetti. At the same time, the course will provide suggestions for being able to pass on some skills to students.
The course will be a single day, for the total duration of 8 hours in which there will be moments dedicated to all, and specific moments for each school order.

Participation will be totally free, and printed and digital educational materials will be provided.

Attendance at the course does not include compulsory class enrollment in the Donizetti Theater Foundation’s performances and educational projects; it is intended to be an opportunity for teachers to study and deepen their knowledge regardless of the actual impact on their classes. This decision stems from the desire to involve teachers first and foremost as privileged interlocutors and bearers of culture to the new generations, in accordance with the guidelines of the Foundation’s statute.

• PLACE: Music Hall “M. Tremaglia” – Donizetti Theater
• DATE: October 19, 2024 – 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• DURATION: full day
• COST: free of charge

PLANNING