Sofia Coppola makes her opera directorial debut
Carlo Fuortes, General Manager of the Rome Opera House Foundation, is pleased to announce a new production of La Traviata, premiering May 24, 2016.
This exclusive show, created by Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti in collaboration with the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, will be distinguished thanks to an amazing team of artists: Valentino who created the stage costumes of the main character, Sofia Coppola in her opera directorial debut, and the brilliant production designer Nathan Crowley.
Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, Creative Directors of the Maison Valentino, will design the costumes for Flora and the Chorus, created in collaboration with the costume workshop of the theatre. Violetta’s costumes will be designed exclusively by Valentino and crafted in the Maison’s couture atelier.
Valentino sees this special project as a dream come true, since he has always been fascinated by opera and its power to invent fantastic and modern worlds, through wonderful and timeless music.
In fact, his passion in the past led him to design the costumes for a 1994 opera, inspired by Rudolph Valentino and staged at the Kennedy Center in Washington; an experience followed by the execution of the extraordinary costumes for the “Valentino” gala at the New York City Ballet, and for the Vienna New Year’s Concert.
The new Traviata thus represents a momentous event, as well as one of the first projects supported by the Fondazione Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti.
Sofia Coppola, a prominent figure in American cinema – in her opera directorial debut – was invited by Valentino to join this production after he watched the movie “Marie Antoinette”, in which the young talent unveiled a distinctive sensitivity and musical aesthetic, balancing the classic and the modern.
Even the scenes of this new Traviata take inspiration from the film world, as they will be the work of British production designer Nathan Crowley, whose previous work includes Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
The music will be entrusted to the Cremonese maestro Jader Bignamini, associate director of the Verdi Orchestra in Milan, and also closely involved with the Verdi Festival in Parma. Among the leading voices will be Francesca Dotto and Maria Grazia Schiavo, alternating in the role of Violetta, along with Antonio Poli and Arturo Chacón-Cruz, taking on the role of Alfredo.
Tickets for La Traviata will be available at the box office of the Teatro dell’Opera and on their website: www.operaroma.it/en/
The show will be run for fifteen performances, from May 24 to June 30, 2016.