AL MULINO (Respighi) Trieste 2024 Afaq Abbasova, Domenico Balzani, Zi-zhao Guo, Cristian Saitta, Jungmin Kim
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Al Mulino
- Composer: Respighi Ottorino
- Libretto: Alberto Donini Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: TEATRO VERDI DI TRIESTE, Italy
- Recorded: June 2021
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Afaq Abbasova, Domenico Balzani, Zi-zhao Guo, Cristian Saitta, Jungmin Kim, Anna Evtekhova, Blagoj Nacoski
- Conductor: FABRIZIO DA ROS
- Orchestra: Orchestra Teatro Verdi di Trieste
- Chorus: Coro Teatro Verdi di Trieste
- Stage Director: DANIELE PISCOPO
- Stage Designer: DANIELE PISCOPO
- Costume Designer: DANIELE PISCOPO
Information about the Recording
- Published by: TEATRO VERDI DI TRIESTE
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- This Recording is NOT AVAILABLE from a proper commercial or public source
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
An undoubted curiosity is the world premiere of an early work by Ottorino Respighi, Al mulino. Al mulino is a one-act opera that has never been performed on stage, given only in private form: its only performance dates back to 1908, for piano and voices only. And its orchestration was abandoned by Respighi three-quarters of the way through the score, dissatisfied with his work.
At its core is a murky one-act drama by Alberto Donini (1887-1961), awarded a prize in a national competition in 1904 and subsequently revived with constant success by various theatre companies. We do not know whether Donini was referring to a literary source, or whether the subject was original; the fact is that his text cunningly aimed at the great Italian interest in Russian literature at the time: it was in fact the years that saw works such as Fedora and Siberia by Giordano (1898 and 1903), Resurrection by Alfano (1904), and Pane altrui by Orefice (1907) on the musical stage, all inspired by great Russian writers.
The dark drama by Donini – born in Rome, adopted by Bologna, who had already given Respighi the libretto of the bitter comic opera Re Enzo (1905) – aroused the interest of the Bolognese composer who set it to music without making substantial changes. In the end, however, he put it aside, stopping the orchestration at three-quarters, a procedure in which he had already demonstrated an admirable technique and a formidable talent.
Incidentally, two years later Donini prepared a real libretto for the composer Leopoldo Cassona (1868-1935), and in this guise the lyrical drama Al mulino saw the light with flattering success at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Turin in 1910, and was subsequently performed in various Italian and European theatres.
As for this aborted work of Respighi, it ended up straight in oblivion, to the point of being ignored or barely mentioned by his biographers, some of whom were evidently unaware of its survival. Wikipedia, for example, does not even mention it among his works.
The plot of this one-act play without any sequence of scenes is quickly explained: Aniuska , daughter of the narrow-minded miller Anatolio , is secretly in love with the young aristocrat Sergio, and is expecting a child from him. Sergio , condemned to deportation to Siberia for his revolutionary ideas, in despair kills a guard and takes refuge with his beloved.
Discovered by Nicola , a mill boy and rejected suitor of Aniuska , he is reported to the police. Aniuska hides him in a canal that is dry at the moment, but when the hiding place is discovered, knowing that he is condemned to death anyway, in a delirium she floods the canal, drowning him along with his pursuers.
Quoted from teatro.it