FULL L’acqua cheta (Giuseppe Pietri) Pisa 2024 Irene Tofanini, Nunzia Fazzi, Carla Rita Vero, Pietro Boi
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: L'acqua cheta
- Composer: Pietri Giuseppe
- Libretto: Augusto Novelli
- Venue & Opera Company: Sala Titta Ruffo, Teatro Verdi, Pisa, Italy
- Recorded: January 26, 2024
- Type: Concert Semi-staged
- Singers: Irene Tofanini, Nunzia Fazzi, Carla Rita Vero, Pietro Boi, Adriano Gulino, Lorenzo Gremigni, Franco Bocci, Agnese Bargagna
- Conductor: Stefano Barandoni
- Orchestra: Silvia Mannari, PIANO
- Chorus: CORO POLIFONICO SAN NICOLA
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Ezio Maria Ferdeghini
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Unknown
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:2
- Subtitles: yessubs, itsubs, gensubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
L’acqua cheta is a comedy in Florentine by Augusto Novelli . It was performed for the first time at the Teatro Alfieri in Florence on 29 January 1908 by the Compagnia del Teatro fiorentino, directed by Andrea Niccoli.
Novelli claims to have thought since 1892 , encouraged by the appreciation of his first writings, to revive the Florentine theatre. His model was Abbot Zannoni , secretary of the Crusca , who wrote four comedies, among which Novelli cites in particular the Crezia rincivilita .
The first fruits of Novelli’s work in this direction were Il Morticino ( 1893 ) and Purgatorio, Inferno e Paradiso ( 1894 ), which were applauded but soon forgotten. Novelli, however, continued to cultivate his idea, until in 1908 L’acqua cheta achieved considerable success, with 44 performances, confirming the author in his belief that the Florentine theater could prosper and succeed even outside of Florence.
On November 27, 1920, the operetta premiered with music by Giuseppe Pietri , the libretto by Novelli and lyrics by Angelo Nessi in the National Drama Theater of Rome with scenography by Aldo Molinari.
The film version was released in 1933.
Plot
The action takes place in Florence, in the San Niccolò district, at the beginning of the 20th century .
Act I
Anita, Ida and Cecco discuss their tastes in entertainment. Rosa enters and complains about the slowness of the work of Cecco, who is preparing a chest of drawers for a room to rent. Rosa suspects that Cecco is interested in Anita, and for the same reason the two girls tease each other.
When Ulysses arrives he is made aware of his suspicion, which Cecco himself then confirms by also showing a letter from Anita in which she reciprocates Cecco’s feelings. Rosa is against it because she claims that Cecco is a socialist, while Ulisse tries to wash his hands of the matter.
Alfredo arrives, wanting to rent the room: everyone is perplexed because he is too young, and it doesn’t seem good that he lives in a house with two girls. Alfredo goes to see the room and agrees to rent it; he then proves to be very kind to Ida, who argued with Ulysses because she carelessly let the mare bite her father’s tuba, offering the latter her own tuba so as not to make the girl cry anymore.
Anita, who had gone out on errands, returns and reveals a secret to Cecco: Alfredo has been in love with Ida for months. He would like to tell her parents, but Cecco suggests that she use the situation to convince Rosa to accept their union.
The act ends with Ida desperate for having broken a mirror.
Act II
In the garden, Alfredo reads the episode of Paolo and Francesca from Dante’s Divine Comedy to Rosa and her two daughters. At the end, Rosa, Ida and Alfredo go out for an ice cream, while Anita remains annoyed thinking about how Rosa has taken a liking to Alfredo, whose job he doesn’t even know, while she continues not to accept Cecco.
Cecco arrives shortly after singing a serenade for Anita, accompanying himself with a guitar. He too is fed up with Rosa’s attitude and suggests that Anita run away with him, but Ulysses is heard arriving. In order not to be found alone with Anita, Cecco climbs the fig tree in the garden, forgetting his guitar. Ulysses decides to eat some figs, and would like to climb the tree to pick one: Anita tries to distract him because she is afraid that he will discover Cecco, but Ulysses, amazed, notices the guitar.
Rosa and the others return. Rosa, to Anita’s disappointment, recognizes Cecco’s guitar who, from the tree, drops figs on Rosa and Alfredo, who think they fell themselves. When everyone leaves, Cecco, from a dialogue between Ida and Alfredo, understands that they are planning to escape by train.
After listening to some bickering between Ulysses, Rosa and Ida, Cecco comes down from the fig tree and organizes, with the help of the stable boy Stinchi, a trap for Ida and Alfredo: the carriage that should take them to the station will instead take them to the police station.
Act III
Ida and Alfredo have disappeared and Rosa is desperate. Ulysses turned to the lawyer Asdrubale to report the kidnapper. The news spreads and even a reporter, Bigatti, who works for the newspaper Fieramosca, appears . Alfredo had passed himself off as a reporter from the same newspaper, so the deception is revealed.
In the general confusion, with Bigatti continuing to note down every detail, Cecco appears, announcing that he has foiled the escape. Ida, who thought she was far away, was returned to Anita and is in her own house, while Alfredo was held in Cecco’s house.
Stinchi brings back Alfredo, who asks Rosa for forgiveness and confesses that he is about to start a job that he kept secret because he thought it would be unpleasant to the family: he will be the municipal guard. Rosa agrees to the union between Ida, who reappears crying, and Alfredo, if he reappears after six months of honest work.
The guitar is returned to Cecco, and his union with Anita is sanctioned by Ulysses, who in the general joy throws the two young people into each other’s arms.