Sonia Bergamasco is going to direct an opera for the first time, to bring Mozart’s masterpiece ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ to the stage of the Maggio Musicale in Florence. The premiere is on June 15, 2019, then the show will run on June 17, 19 and 21. The direction team will be composed of two women, since, apart from Sonia as director, the conductor is going to be a woman too – Kristiina Poska – opening a Mozart trilogy viewed through the eyes of women.
Sonia Bergamasco first graduated at the Conservatory of Music, then she obtained a degree in acting. She says she has immediately found music also in theatre, not only through singing but also through the study of the actor’s body. In spite of this, she admitted she was surprised and even a little bit scared when she received the call by Cristiano Chiarot, superintendent for the Maggio Musicale festival in Florence. She overcame her fears and started to get prepared for the new challenge right away. She was sure that the opera direction cannot impose itself upon the great Mozart, therefore her objective was to respect and give value to the music compass and voices, while undertaking further work on singers’ acting.
Thanks to the large stage of the Maggio Musicale Theatre in Florence, Sonia noticed that there were vast opportunities for directing. In particular, she was inspired by the work by the musicologist Lidia Bramani, who dedicated her work to Mozart together with Claudio Abbado, to better understand the elements that were already in the opera, with a special sensitivity to the female characters. In the end, among all arts, Ms Bergamasco openly stated that music is the one that excites her the most. We will see it soon with The Marriage of Figaro at the Maggio Musicale in Florence in June.