Don Bucefalo @ Wexford Festival Opera 2014
Written in 1847 as a graduation work by Antonio Cagnoni (1828–1896), a student at the Milan Conservatory, Don Bucefalo was an immediate success. It was performed in several opera houses in Italy and abroad, winning critical and popular acclaim wherever it was staged. Its most obvious predecessor is Donizetti’s 1843 comic masterpiece Don Pasquale. Cagnoni had written two operas before Don Bucefalo and was to write a further seventeen, stylistically moving from the tradition of Rossini and Donizetti towards Leoncavallo and verismo. But his later works failed to recapture the ease and fluency of Don Bucefalo.
Don Bucefalo introduces himself as a singing teacher, extolling the rewards of working in the theatre: travel, love, wealth and luxuries. Rosa takes him up on his offer of singing lessons as a means of bettering herself socially, and Don Bucefalo and Don Marco compose an opera and prepare for its performance. But before the (inevitable) happy ending comes rivalry between singers, marital jealousy, the return of a long-lost husband and the difficulties of putting on a new opera.
Filippo Fontana Don Bucefalo
Marie-Ève Munger Rosa
Matthew Newlin Il Conte di Belprato
Jennifer Davis Agata
Kezia Bienek Gianetta
Davide Bartolucci Don Marco
Peter Davoren Carlino
Sergio Alapont
Conductor
Kevin Newbury
Stage Director
Victoria (Vita) Tzykun
Set Designer
Jessica Jahn
Costume Designer
DM Wood
Lighting Designer
Proudly presented in association with Italian Institute of Culture – Dublin.
Sung in Italian.
Tickets from €25.