Teatro del Maggio

Adaptation of the famous novel by Hungarian Sándor Márai, Le Braci tells the meeting in 1940 of two old childhood friends who first met each other at the Military Academy of Vienna: Henrik (the son of a Hungarian prince) and Konrad (belonging to a Polish lower middle class family). They loved the same woman, Krisztina, but she married Henrik. Konrad suddenly left for the tropics and the colonies, after a hunt that threatened to turn into a murder and, forty years later, the two men see each other again one last time to evoke the past and talk again of Krisztina, dead many years ago. Will Henrik be able to finally know the truth about the assassination attempt of Konrad and the infidelity of his wife?

Opera in one act
Music and libretto by Marco Tutino from the homonymous novel by Sándor Márai
Editore Casa Musicale Sonzogno di Piero Ostali, Milano

New staging in co-production with the Festival della Valle d’Itria
First representation of the new version

Artists

Conductor
Francesco Cilluffo

Director
Leo Muscato

Scenes
Tiziano Santi

Costumes
Silvia Aymonino

Light design
Alessandro Verazzi

Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Kristina
Angela Nisi

Nini
Romina Tomasoni

Joung Konrad
Davide Giusti

Joung Henrik
Kristian Lindroos

Konrad
Alfonso Antoniozzi

Henrik
Roberto Scandiuzzi

Dancers (Fattoria Vittadini)
Cesare Benedetti
Mattia Agatiello
Chiara Ameglio

At the start of World War II, in a castle in the Hungarian countryside, Henrik, a general of the Imperial Army now in retreat, awaits the arrival of Konrad, his childhood friend and military academy companion. Exactly forty years ago they have lost sight of each other after an hunting trip during which Konrad pointed his gun towards Henrik, before he disappeared the next day with no explanation.
After the hunt, Henrik finds out that his wife, Krisztina, had an affair with Konrad. He decided to separate from her and he did not to talk her anymore. Since then Henrik has lived as a hermit, completely alone, waiting only the return of his friend. Now it's finally time to compare the revenge of one with the repentance of the other.
Through the dramatic encounter between the two men, with the rubble of the empire Austro-Hungarian Empire in the background, Le braci evokes a friendship lost in a world that in the end, the inevitable advance of the time when the most violent feelings smoldering under the ashes of the past. A dialogue that draws on a deep reflection about love, friendship and morality.

Marco Tutino

Marco Tutino was born in Milano in 1954. Since his debut in 1976 at the “Gaudeamus festival” (Holland) his compositions have been programmed in prestigious Opera Houses and Concert Venues worldwide, earning a large success of public and critics. From 1985 - when his first opera Pinocchio was commissioned in Vienna - Tutino composed Cirano, La Lupa, Federico II , Il gatto con gli stivali, Dylan Dog, Peter Uncino, Le Bel indifférent, La bella e la bestia,
The Servant, Senso and Le braci. From 1990 Marco Tutino holds important positions as a Musical Manager for Italian Opera Houses. In 2002 he’s appointed Artistic Director of the Teatro Regio in Torino, In October 2006 he’s appointed General Manager and Artistic Director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, where he starts a challenging action aimed to settle its debts, reducing its economic deficit. From 2009 to 2011 Tutino has been the President of the Anfols, the chamber of Italian Opera Foundations. The San Francisco Opera has commissioned Marco Tutino Two Women / La Ciociara, an opera whose history is taken from the famous Italian novelist Alberto Moravia; it's the first time after Puccini that an American theatre commission an Italian composer an opera, which has been acclaimed at her first representation in June 2015.

FRANCESCO CILLUFFO

Born in Turin in 1979, where he graduated in conducting and composition at the Conservatory Giuseppe Verdi. Graduated in the history of music from DAMS, he attended a master's degree at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and a doctorate at King's College of London, in the meantime with working with Gianluigi Gelmetti and Iván Fischer. Among his recent engagements are: Der König Kandaules at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Il trovatore in Lecco, and other historical Lombard theaters, L'Arlesiana at the Teatro Perglesi of Jesi, Tancredi in the theaters of the Circuito Lirico Lombardo, La cambiale di matrimonio at the Teatro Regio di Parma, Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. He has also composed several instrumental works and the operas Il caso Mortara and Edward II.

LEO MUSCATO

He was born in Martina Franca and studied Literature and Philosophy at the University La Sapienza in Rome. After joining the company of Luigi De Filippo, in 1997 he won the competition at the School of Dramatic Art Paolo Grassi in Milan. From 2005 to 2008 he was Artistic Director of the Company LeArt'-Teatro of Grottamare. In 2007, the National Association of Theatre Critics awarded him Best Director and in 2009 he made his debut in opera with the diptych La voix humaine/Pagliacci for the theaters of the Circuito Lirico Lombardo. The following year, he stagged La bohème for Opera Macerata Festival and in 2013 staged I masnadieri for the Verdi Festival in Parma and L'Africaine at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In Florence in January 2014 he staged Nabucco, winner of the Premio Abbiati as the best production.

Stalls 1	€ 50
Stalls 2	€ 40
Stalls 3	€ 30
Boxes	€ 20
Gallery	€ 15
Limited visibility	€ 10

Season 2015/16

Opera

Le Braci

Artists

Marco Tutino

FRANCESCO CILLUFFO

LEO MUSCATO

Dates

Prices

Where

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino