Teatro Real Premieres Rossini’s Opera Buffa ‘Il turco in Italia’ with Feminism and Humanism at Its Core

MADRID, 31 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Teatro Real has hosted this Wednesday, May 31st, a highly applauded new premiere of the opera buffa ‘Il turco in Italia’ by Gioachino Rossini, a two-act play framed in comedy and melodrama but with feminism and humanism as its axis central.

The public has mainly applauded Sara Blanch for her role as Fiorilla, especially after replacing the American soprano Lisette Oropesa at the last minute due to a flu process. The public has also particularly acclaimed Misha Kiria (Geronio), who has starred in more comedy moments.

This version of ‘Il turco in Italia’, in which the plot is set in 18th century Naples, presents a Fiorilla with a strong power of seduction over men, even though she is married to Geronio.

However, the thirst for freedom caused by the sadness of her marriage leads her to imagine a hectic love story brimming with eroticism, with a handsome and seductive Turkish man, played by Alex Esposito.

During the show –of almost three hours– Fiorilla finds in photo novels the way to escape from her reality and enters a new life in which she will live adventures with her new lover.

In this way, all the characters in the opera become the actors of his imagination, from Zaïda, Selim’s rejected girlfriend, to Prosdocimo, a poet in search of inspiration and a voyeur witness to Fiorilla’s experiences, also turned into a photonovela character. .

The stage director Laurent Pelly, much loved by the audience at the Teatro Real, where he has directed ‘La fille du régiment’ (2014), ‘Hänsel und Gretel’ (2015), ‘The Golden Rooster’ (2017), ‘Falstaff ‘ (2019) and ‘Long live the Mamma!’ (2021), is in charge of transforming the opera into a fotonovela melodrama, with stereotyped codes and vintage aesthetics, imagined by the dreamy protagonist of it to escape married life.

Pelly situates the action precisely in the period when fotonovelas cause a sensation. At first, he introduces Fiorilla to her nondescript middle-class house, with a well-kept garden. Plunging into her pages, she is suddenly captivated by Selim, a Turk who embodies the epitome of virility and exoticism.

The work reaches depth with the music of Gioachino Rossini, under the baton of Giacomo Sagripanti, who has made his debut at the head of the Royal Choir and Orchestra, and who interprets the recitatives on the fortepiano. The melodies allow the public to experience the strongest registers and emotions, which makes them go from exaltation to despair that are intermingled with comic overtones and serious overtones.

The scenery has been marked by the appearance of photographed frames and decorations that have delighted the public.
The fotonovela codes are here theater tools that allow you to play with the madness of the characters and the lightness of the improbable situations.

“SLIGHT IS THE MISTAKE WHEN IT ARISES FROM LOVE”

Already in the second act, the plot is defined by the sitcom, especially when Fiorilla goes to a costume ball to meet her beloved lover behind her husband’s back.

At this moment, the poet challenges the public more with the aim of concluding his work with a happy ending in an exercise in metatheater.

The moral of the show focuses on forgiveness, granted by Geronio to Fiorilla because “the mistake is slight when it arises from love.”

‘Il turco in Italia’ has never been performed at the Teatro Real, although it has been performed in Madrid, in 1818 at the Teatro de la Cruz, at the Teatro del Príncipe in 1820 and in 1990 at the Zarzuela.

This function was the first of the ten that will be held until June 12 at the Real and will later be presented at the co-producing theatres: the Lyon Opera and the New National Theater Tokyo.

‘Il turco in Italia’ had problems with censorship at its premiere in Milan in 1814 -and especially two years later, when it arrived in Rome-, due to the fact that it speaks of explicit infidelity and a sense of humor. In later versions, the role of the characters was changed, with the Turkish lover being Fiorilla’s servant or the husband who became her guardian.