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Viva la Mamma is a work which plays strictly for laughs. A two-act dramma giocoso, Viva la Mamma shows us what can go wrong when the egos of actors get in the way of putting on a show. At the beginning of the opera, we meet a company in rehearsal, a prima donna refusing to take direction, and a director pulling his hair out in frustration. Not that any of the other principals are much better: everyone is acting the diva, even though, in the case of the lead tenor, the singer can barely perform the part he has been given. When the larger-than-life mother of the seconda donna, Mamma Agata, storms onto the scene, demanding that her daughter be given an aria of her own, the company loses half its cast, opening the way for her to make her stage debut alongside the prima donna’s husband. Just as the production threatens to become a fiasco, Mamma Agata saves the day by financing the show just as the director learns that his original backers have abandoned the project. Originally titled Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (The conventions and inconveniences of the stage), a wonderful play on words, Donizetti spliced together the titles of two plays by Antonio Simone Sografi which poked fun at the rules of theatrical performance. A one-act farce, based on the first of Sografi’s two plays, Le convenienze teatrali, opened at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples on 21 November 1827 while the full opera, based on both Le convenienze teatrali and Le inconvenienze teatrali received its premiere at Milan’s Teatro della Cannobiana on 20 April 1831.
New production Coproduction with Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro Regio de Turin, Liceu de Barcelona Donizetti's comic opera about opera, 'Viva La Mamma!', in a production by Laurent Pelly and under the direction of conductor Lorenzo Viotti. During a rehearsal, a capricious soprano and an inadequate tenor are interrupted by Mamma Agata, bursting in to demand a better role for her daughter, Luigia. A fight takes place, but a bad news is soon to be learned: the Musico has fled! It is Mamma Agata that will offer to take over the castrato's role... With a succession of catastrophic and comical situations, Donizetti describes, with an inch of irony and lots of tenderness, life behind-the-scenes of the opera.
Daria, prima donna : Patrizia Ciofi ; Procolo, her husband : Charles Rice ; Luigia, seconda donna : Clara Meloni ; Mamma Agata : Laurent Naouri ; Guglielmo, primo tenore : Enea Scala ; Biscroma Strappaviscere, conductor : Pietro di Bianco ; Pippetto : Katherine Aitken ; Orchestra and Chorus of Opéra de Lyon
Musical direction : Lorenzo Viotti ; Staging and Costumes : Laurent Pelly ; Collaboration on costumes : Jean-Jacques Delmotte ; Sets : Chantal Thomas ; Lighting : Joël Adam
Italian
French
Production compagny : Telmondis
Coproduction compagny : Opéra de Lyon, France Télévisions
Running Time : 1x115'
Production Year : 2017
Distribution compagny : Telmondis Distribution
Video Format : HD