FULL LABYRINTH (Menotti) & A HAND OF BRIDGE (Barber) Sao Paulo 2024 Débora Neves, Fernanda França, Robert Willian, Laleska Terzetti
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Labyrinth, A Hand of Bridge or O Labirinto, Uma Rodada de Bridge
- Composer: Menotti Gian Carlo, Samuel Barber
- Libretto: Gian Carlo Menotti Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Theatro São Pedro, Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Recorded: November 9, 2024
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Débora Neves, Fernanda França, Robert Willian, Laleska Terzetti, Éder Rodrigues, Isabelle Dumalakas, Cláudio Marques, Ernesto Borghi, Ariel Bernardi, Gianlucca Braghin, Erickson Almeida, Wilian Manoel, Anastasia Liàntziris, Julián Lisnichuk
- Conductor: André Dos Santos
- Orchestra: Orquestra Jovem do Theatro São Pedro,
- Stage Director: João Malatian
- Stage Designer: Giorgia Massetani
- Costume Designer: Giorgia Massetani
- Lighting Designer: Kuka Batista
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Theatro São Pedro
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, othersubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Labyrinth is an opera in one act by composer Gian Carlo Menotti. The work was commissioned for television by the NBC Opera Theatre and uses an English language libretto by the composer. Unlike Menotti’s previous television operas, such as Amahl and the Night Visitors, this opera was written with no intention of being moved to live stage performance later. Menotti intended for this work to utilize the special effects unique to television which could not be recreated in live theatre. As a result, NBC’s television production of the opera was the only performance the work had received until Ventura College mounted a production in June of 2020, directed by Brent Wilson. After its March 3, 1963 broadcast the opera was mainly criticized by the press for its trite use of allegory and music which rejected the avant-garde in favour of romanticism.
A Hand of Bridge, opus 35, is an opera in one act composed by Samuel Barber with libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, and is possibly the shortest opera that is regularly performed: it lasts about nine minutes. It premiered as a part of Menotti’s Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto on 17 June 1959 at the Teatro Caio Melisso. The United States premiere occurred the next year. The opera consists of two unhappily married couples playing a hand of bridge, during which each character has an arietta in which he or she professes his or her inner desires.