The lyric season will feature 11 titles, including the world premiere of an entrusted show. The program also includes tributes to modern art week and the Bicentennial of Independence, ballet performances, symphonic and chamber music concerts.

 

The São Pedro Theater, an institution of the Government of the State of São Paulo and the Secretary of State for Culture and Creative Economy, managed by the social organization Santa Marcelina Cultura, announces the 2022 Season. The lyrical series will include eleven titles: La Serva Padrona and Livietta y Tracollo, by  Giovanni Battista Pergolesi,  Los Capuleto y los Montescos,by Vincenzo Bellini,  West Side Story,  by Leonard Bernstein,  Conference on Waterfowl,  by Dominick Argento,  Threepenny Opera,  by Kurt Weill,  Ariadne in Naxos,  by Richard Strauss,  Viva La Mamma,    by Gaetano Donizetti,  El Barberillo de Lavapiés,   by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri and world premiere of the commission of Santa Marcelina Cultura: O Canto do Cisne,  by Leonardo Martinelli, in addition to the show with the three titles produced by the Atelier de Composición Lírica.

 

“Two axes are defined within the lyrical programming of 2022. The first axis of the season is the trilogy of impossible loves, which brings titles that portray the drama of lovers who cannot live their love together in different musical languages. The trilogy includes Bellini’s Capuletos and Montescos,    Bernstein’s West Side Story  and  Strauss’s Ariadne in Naxos.   The second axis of the program reinforces the artistic decisions made in recent years since Santa Marcelina Cultura assumed the direction of Theatro São Pedro. The emphasis remains on privileging the baroque, classical and  bel cantorepertoire, and the choice of titles and commissions of more contemporary works. Within this axis we will have two  intermezzi  by Giovanni Pergolesi, the universal and immortal La Serva Padrona,from 1733, and the lesser-known, but absolutely charming,  Livietta e Tracollo,composed the following year. The axis also includes two works with adapted librettos by Anton Tchekhov: the first world audition of  O Canto do Cisne,by Leonardo Martinelli and Lecture on Aquatic Birds,by Dominick Argento”, says Paulo Zuben, artistic-pedagogical director of Santa Marcelina Cultura.

 

The lyrical season of the Orchestra of the Theatro São Pedro begins in March with the double program La Serva Padrona and Livietta e Tracollo,  by the Italian composer of the Baroque period Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736). The musical direction is by Luis Otavio Santos, a specialist in early music. The stage direction is Mauro Wrona, Duda Arruk sets the stage, Mirela Brandi the lighting, Paula C Paula Gascon the costumes and Tiça Camargo the visagismo. The cast consists of Saulo Javan, (Tracollo / Uberto), Marília Vargas (Livietta / Serpina) and Felipe Venâncio (Facenda / Vespone). The recitations take place on March 17, 18, 19 and 20.

 

The season continues with another title by an Italian composer: Capuletos y Montescos,  by Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835), which will be presented in April, in eight recitals. With a libretto by Felice Romani, the opera is not based on Shakespeare’s famous text, but on an Italian historical source. Premiered in 1830, at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the work is one of the composer’s greatest successes, and its particularity is that the two protagonists are performed by women: Juliet of soprano and Romeo of mezzo-soprano. Vincenzo Bellini is considered one of the greatest exponents of  bel canto,along with Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti.

 

The production is in charge of Antônio Araújo, founder of the Teatro da Vertigem and artistic director of the MIT – Mostra Internacional de Teatro de São Paulo. The musical direction is by Alessandro Sangiorgi, who commands the Theatro São Pedro Orchestra. The assembly also has the participation of Coral Jovem do Estado. In the cast, Denise de Freitas and Carla Cottini stand out, who play, respectively, Romeo and Juliet. The cast is completed by Aníbal Mancini (Teobaldo), Douglas Hann (Lorenzo) and Anderson Barbosa, bass (Capelio).

 

The passion of Romeo and Juliet returns to the stages of the Theatro São Pedro, but from a different angle: with an original montage of West Side Story,by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). There will be a total of 25 recitals, between the months of July and August. Released in 1957, it is still recognized today as one of the most important titles in Broadway history and tells an updated version of the story of Romeo and Juliet, in a neighborhood marked by conflict between street gangs, Tony, a white worker and Maria, a young Puerto Rican, live a love seen as impossible for society. Leonard Bernstein, born in New York, was one of the leading musical personalities of the twentieth century, acting as a composer, conductor, pianist and educator. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic between 1958 and 1969 – a period in which he dedicated himself to the popularization of the classical repertoire – and conducted the most important orchestras in the world. The musical direction is by Cláudio Cruz, the artistic direction is by Charles Möeller and Cláudio Botelho.

 

In August, Theatro São Pedro presents another double program, this time with librettos inspired by works by the Russian playwright Anton Tchekhov (1860-1904). World premiere of O Canto do Cisne, an opera commissioned by Santa Marcelina Cultura to the composer Leonardo Martinelli (1978) and Conference on waterfowl,bythe American Dominick Argento (1927-2019). Composed in 1974,  Lecture on Water Birds was inspired byChekhov’s   The Evilsof Tobacco.

 

With musical direction by Gabriel Rhein-Schirato, stage direction by Livia Sabag, the production has scenography by Renato Theobaldo, costumes by Marcelo Marques, lighting by Valéria Lovato and visagismo by Emi Sato. The cast includes experienced singers: Eliane Coelho (The Actress), Mauro Wrona (The Old Point) and Lício Bruno (Announcer). The recitals take place on 18, 19, 20 and 21 August.

 

In September it is time to take the stage of the Theatro São Pedro another title composed by Kurt Weill with a libretto by Bertold Brecht: the Threepenny Opera,which had its world premiere in Berlin on August 31, 1928, two hundred years after the premiere of the work on which it was based: the Opera Beggar  (TheBeggar’s Opera),  John Gay, 1728.

 

The production will feature musical direction by Ira Levin and stage direction by Alexandre Dal Farra. In the cast: Leonardo Neiva (Mac), Lina Mendes (Polly), Luisa Francesconi (Jenny), Homero Velho (Peachum) and Juliana Taino (Ms. Peachum). With four performances, the premiere will be on September 1.

 

In October it is the turn of the exhibition composed of the three titles produced by the Atelier de Composition Lírica, a program that aims to promote the composition of unpublished operatic works.

 

To close the lyrical season of the Orchestra of the Theatro São Pedro, the title chosen was Ariadne in Naxos,  by Richard Strauss (1864-1949). With an unconventional structure, the work tells the story of a composer working on an opera commission – the first act, called a “prologue”, shows the author dealing with the demands of his boss and a sudden crush on actress Zerbinetta; in the second, the opera itself is presented, which brings together elements of a serious opera with comic scenes, in which the story of the prologue is mixed with classical scenes from the story of the Greek princess Ariadne. Richard Strauss is, along with Gustav Mahler, the greatest representative of German late Romanticism.

 

With an extensive musical production, Strauss excelled especially in the composition of symphonic poems such as DonJuan, Thus Spoke Zarathustra  and  Don Quixote,and operas such as  Salome,  Elektra  and The Knight of the Rose. The musical direction is by the German director Félix Krieger and the stage direction by the Argentine Pablo Maritano. One of the highlights of the cast is soprano Eiko Senda, in the role of Ariadne. Rounding out the cast: tenors Eric Herrero as Bacchus and Giovanni Tristacci as Scaramuccio; Vinicius acts as Harlequin. In addition to Luisa Francesconi (Composer), Santiago Martinez (Brighella), Cintia Cunha (Echo), Tatiane Reis (Naiad), Fernanda Nagashima (Dryad) and Luiz Pateow (Butler). Assembly opens on November 18. In total there will be eight performances.

 

Young Academy of Opera and Orchestra of Theatro São Pedro

 

In order to enable the artistic development of young singers and instrumentalists, Theatro São Pedro promotes performances by artists in training. The two groups of students linked to the theater, Opera Academy and the Youth Orchestra of the Theatro São Pedro, will perform two original productions in 2022, each with four recitals.

 

The first will be the opera Viva La Mamma, by the Italian Gaetano Donizetti (1797 – 1848), which will be presented in June with musical direction by André Dos Santos and stage direction by Julianna Santos. In October it is the turn of the Academy and the Youth Orchestra of the San Pedro Theater to present El Barberillo de Lavapiés,a zarzuela by the Spanish composer Francisco Asenjo Barbieri (1823 – 1894).

 

In addition to the two new productions, the Theatro São Pedro Opera Academy will also hold a recital, on November 26 and 27, inspired by the Modern ArtWeek,  with Brazilian and foreign authors who permeate modernism.

 

Ballet performances

 

The partnership between Theatro São Pedro and São Paulo Companhia de Dança will honor the Modern Art Week with creations that dialogue with the thought of the artists of the time and with works that start from the fusion of different artistic languages to reinterpret, in the light of the XXI century, the air of innovation left by the modernist winds.

 

The first program, which will be presented in May, includes two choreographies. The first Di,unpublished choreography by Miriam Druwe, is inspired by the imagination and lyricism of the work of Di Cavalcanti (1897-1976) and the work  Choros nº 6,by Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959). Artists who express impressions of Brazil from a modernist thought.

 

The second part of the show presents Madrugada  (2021), by Antônio Gomes, followed by Las  Valsas de Esquina, by Francisco Mignone (1897-1986) with orchestration by Rubens Ricciardi. The musical direction and direction is in charge of Cláudio Cruz.

 

The second program of the Orchestra of the Theater of São Pedro with São Paulo Companhia de Dança also has two choreographies: Um Sopro …,  by Henrique Rodovalho, with scenography and costumes by Fábio Namatame, inspired by the drawings of Flávio de Carvalho (1899-1973) for the ballet A Cangaceira,of the anthological Ballet of the IV Centenary.

 

Then, it is the turn of Infinitos Traçados  (2021), a work created from multiple perspectives that brings human sensations and emotions to the scene in a space dotted with lights and shadows. The show is directed by Inês Bogéa, conception and stage direction by William Pereira and musical direction by Ricardo Balestero.

 

Symphonic concerts

 

In 2022, the Theatro São Pedro Orchestra celebrates the Bicentennial of Independence with two concerts in May conducted by Ricardo Kanji and with the participation of the Coral Jovem do Estado. In the program, compositions by Dom Pedro I, Marcos Portugal, Father José Mauricio and Sigismund Neukomm.

 

The Orchestra’s second program takes place in September and features conductor Ira Levin and singer Denise de Freitas as guests. The repertoire is composed of pieces by the Austrians Joseph Haydn and Arnold Schoenberg and the Czech composer Jan Václav Vorísek.

 

Closing the season, in December, the Orchestra of the Teatro de São Pedro and the Opera Academy present a year-end concert, conducted by André Dos Santos, with excerpts and arias from operas such as As Alegre Comadres de Windsor by Carl Otto Nicolai and La Rondine,  by Rossini.

 

Chamber music season

 

The chamber music cycle will bring together some thirty presentations with Brazilian guest artists, musicians from the Theatro São Pedro Orchestra and singers from the Opera Academy. The program will commemorate the Bicentennial of Independence and the Centennial of Modern Art Week. Among the guests are musicians such as Ricardo Kanji, Guilherme Camargo, Edmundo Hora, André Micheletti and Juliano Buosi.

 

The season will also feature a program under the musical direction of the pianist Ricardo Ballestero that proposes to create a journey between two important temporal cycles: the first, from 1822 to 1922, which goes from the Independence of Brazil to the Week of Modern Art; and the second, from 1922 to 2022, reflecting on the concerns that the modernist movement discussed and the respective transformations that have echoed in the arts to the present day.

 

Another highlight of the program is the cycle of concerts and conferences: Modern Art Week: past, present and future  (1922-2022), which will be curated by Camila Fresca.