Rossini 2023 and WORLD OPERA DAY 2022
The 34th Belcanto Opera Festival will take place from 14 to 23 July 2023. Please subscribe to the newsletter for further information. This year, ROSSINI IN WILDBAD is participating for the first time in WORLD OPERA DAY with a streaming of a very special opera project from the year of the Pandemic, 2020 L'ISOLA DISABITATA.
L’isola disabitata – The lonely island by Manuel García
For Opera Europa’s collection UNBOXING OPERA to honour World Opera Day 25 October 2022, this recording is broadcast for the first time.
Streaming is for free. Registration on Vimeo is mandatory. Although you have to insert your payment mode and see a price, please click and insert the promo code: Worldoperaday for FREE streaming.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/isoladisabitata
German subtitles only. The libretto in Italian and German is accessible on the page.
L’ISOLA DISABITATA – an opera for the forest that has never heard of opera before....
Desperation and perplexity reigned the opera business in 2020, when during the first summer of the pandemic, when almost every opera performance had to be cancelled. So it was in Bad Wildbad, where the 32nd BELCANTO OPERA FESTIVAL had been postponed by one year due to security concerns. But in late summer, with lower figures of infection, there was a sign of hope and with some scholars from the Akademie BelCanto, its director Jochen Schönleber started an almost crazy opera project: Corona safe on a rope bridge in the midst of the silent mountain forest, surrounded by bats and owls and with pretty fresh temperatures, the group rehearsed an opera about love, fear of treachery and loneliness: L’isola disabitata – The lonely island. Where can you show loneliness better than on a high bridge in the forest by night? And where can you get a more beautiful scenery for free? It was just the metal of the construction in contrast to the Black Forest trees and it became magic.
The well known baroque libretto by Metastasio was used once again 1832 by Manuel García, the legendary tenor and composer, for an opera di salotto dedicated to his singing students. The production uses very simple, almost schematic movements and in contrast a lot of colours around the narrow bridge. The two performances in September 2020 were a remarkable success, attracting a cold-proof audience, the bats, owls, foxes, a huge military helicopter and German TV.