Great success for the renewal campaign: 95% over last Season
Ninety-five percent of the subscribers for the 2023/2024 Prose Season have renewed their membership for the 2024/2025 Season as well.Building on this impressive figure, the Donizetti Theatre Foundation announces the start of the sale of new subscriptions from Tuesday, October 15. From Tuesday, October 22, new subscriptions to the Other Paths review and for the Operetta Season will then be available. From Tuesday, November 5, tickets for individual performances for all seasons will then go on sale. Tickets for the opera Rigoletto are already available, while those for the Dec. 31 performance, A Christmas Carol, and the concerts at the Teatro Sociale will go on sale as early as Oct. 15, along with subscriptions to the Prose Season. All programs can be found on the Foundation’s website www.teatrodonizetti.it. Online sales at www.vivaticket.com.“Once again we cannot fail to express great satisfaction with the results of the renewals of subscriptions to the Prose Season,” comments Massimo Boffelli, General Manager of the Donizetti Theater Foundation, “The increase to eight performances for the seven titles is therefore already meeting the desired audience consensus. The imminent start of the sale of new subscriptions and then tickets can therefore only take place under the best auspices.” “I have always thought of our audience as a large community, and it is a joy to see that it continues to expand,” adds Maria Grazia Panigada, Artistic Director of the Prose Season and Other Paths, “The audience of the Donizetti Theater and the Sociale is a community that is constantly growing and becoming more inclusive and welcoming. The companies we host tell us that in Bergamo they breathe the skills of the workers, of those who make a complex theater machine work, but most of all they are amazed by the warmth of our audience.” Specifically, here is a summary of the 2024/2025 Theater Season.
Drama Season
The Prose Season 2024|2025 at the Donizetti Theater opens from December 7 to 15, 2024 with The Irresistible Boys, a text by American Neil Simon brought to the stage by two great protagonists of Italian theater, Umberto Orsini and Franco Branciaroli, directed by Massimo Popolizio. From Jan. 25 to Feb. 2, 2025, it will be the turn of another outstanding actor, Alessandro Haber, the main performer in La Conscience of Zeno, based on the famous novel by Italo Svevo, directed by Paolo Valerio, while from Feb. 8 to 16 will be staged The Miser by Molière, with the surprising performance of Ugo Dighero. Silvio Orlando will return to Bergamo from Feb. 22 to March 2 with the latest show produced by his company, Charlatans, a story whose characters are linked to the worlds of film and theater, written and directed by Spaniard Pablo Rémon. Plus: from March 8 to 16, Fausto Russo Alesi will offer, also in the directorial role, Eduardo De Filippo’s most Pirandellian text, The Art of Comedy, a choral work that captivates between disquiet and farce; from April 5 to 13, Argentine author and director Claudio Tolcachir will present Building 3, a comedy that, in recounting the personal vicissitudes of five characters who share the confined space of an office, churns out moments of emotion, grotesque effects and comedy. The 2024/2025 Prose Season will conclude, from May 10 to 18, with Ticino-based Daniele Finzi Pasca and his company, much loved in Bergamo, engaged on this occasion in Titizé – A Venetian Dream.
Other Pathways
With six of the seven titles on the bill scheduled at the Upper Town Social Theater, Altri Percorsi, which has always been a showcase of different ways of doing theatrical research, will be under the banner of young actors: so are, in particular, the shows that open and close the review, both of which are characterized by great choral force, Re Lear è morto a Mosca (Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024), with a group of young artists led by Argentine director César Brie, e The Trials by Britain’s Dawn King with the direction Veronica Cruciani and twelve young students from the Accademia dei Filodrammatici in Milan (Thursday, April 3, 2025 with matinee on the 4th). Reality will forcefully enter the review with a lunge on the theme of justice, thanks to the show In the eye of the labyrinth. Apology of Enzo Tortora, a debut play by playwright Chicco Dossi, staged by the Cooperative Theater with the performance of talented young actor Simone Tudda (Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025). Appearing for the first time in Altri Percorsi, the Menoventi company will represent Odradek, a contemporary fairy tale inspired by Gunther Anders and Franz Kafka (Thursday, Feb. 6). A welcome return will be that of Teatro La Ribalta: in the The Queen’s Mirror we will find again on stage Jason Mattia De Majo, Maria Magdolna Johannes, Rocco Ventura directed by Antonio Viganò and a reflection on the beauty that is contained in the diversity of each (Thursday, Feb. 20). The next edition of Altri Percorsi will also have a window on classical theater with Amphitryon, a performance by Teatro Kismet (Thursday, March 27 and matinee on March 28). Finally, on Thursday, March 6, at the Donizetti Theater, the following is on the bill. Amore by Pippo Delbono: a show that asks nothing except to sit back and let yourself be taken by the hand by the world of fado, with its rhythm, dance and song, accompanied by the dreamlike and emotional visions of its creator.
Opera&Concerts
This is the section of the Theater Season dedicated to music with projects and repertoires that cross different genres. It begins with theItalian Philharmonic Orchestra, which on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, offers a new project entitled The Five Elements: Earth Air Water Fire Ether, with the whimsical violin of Alessandro Quarta acting as a guide among the five elements. The new partnership with the Polli Stoppani Foundation will be in the sign of a prestigious pair of pianists, Michele Campanella and Monica Leone, who will perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Franz Liszt’s brilliant transcription for two pianos (Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024). And in keeping with established tradition, the end-of-year and beginning-of-year festivities will be marked by the Christmas Concert and the New Year’s Concert, respectively. The former, Saturday, Dec. 21 at 3:30 p.m., will feature the I Piccoli Musici choir directed by Mario Mora, with a program entitled The Sound of Voice. The New Year’s greeting, with theItalian Philharmonic Orchestra, will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025 at 11 a.m. on the notes of famous composers such as Johann Strauss, Antonín Dvořák, Ottorino Respighi and Johannes Brahms. All concerts are scheduled at the Teatro Sociale.
For Opera, Teatro Donizetti will host one of Verdi’s masterpieces on Friday, Jan. 10 (8 p.m.) and Sunday, Jan. 12 (3:30 p.m.), Rigoletto, in the new production co-produced by OperaLombardia Theaters, conducted by Alessandro D’Agostini and directed by Matteo Marziano Graziano.
A Christmas Carol Musical
New Year’s Eve at the Donizetti Theater (10 p.m.) will be in the sign of a musical based on Charles Dickens’ most famous novel, adapted for musical theater by Melina Pellicano with music by Stefano Lori and Marco Caselle: A Christmas Carol. On stage as Ebenezer Scrooge will be Fabrizio Rizzolo and a cast of more than 20, with special effects, original music, 150 costumes and spectacular sets.
Season of Operettas
Also in 2025, the Donizetti Theater is hosting the now unfailing Operetta Season on Sunday afternoons (3:30 p.m.), with, leading the way, Jan. 5, Ball at the Savoy, an operetta with very clear allusions and references to the musical. Staged by the Compagnia Teatro Musica Novecento. Austria is one of the cradles of Operetta: Viennese Dream, the second title on the bill, brought to the stage Jan. 19 by Compagnia Corrado Abbati, is a show that in drawing on the school of the Austrian capital, but not only, moves between historical reconstruction and pure entertainment. Finally, on March 30, Scugnizza, an operetta full of typically Neapolitan lyricism. Its story, at times moving and at times comic, is absolutely truthful and reflects the canons of the “Italian-style” operetta, with those traits of regionality that distinguish our operetta production. Staged by the Compagnia d’Operette Elena D’Angelo.
