SYNOPSIS - ACT TWO
Romantic music inspires a ballet in ACT TWO. It’s the 1940’s. The stage is split with a recording studio above and the modest home of a working-class family below. A band of session musicians and a parade of elegantly dressed opera singers ready themselves for recording in a studio in Italy as a family across the continent in Spain gathers to listen to music on the gramophone. A needle is delicately placed on the record, the studio whirls to life and the sounds of the original recording pour into the room below. In a series of choreographed vignettes that are at turns funny and affecting, each member of the family is roused from their daily routine and invigorated by the power of the music. Puccini and Catalani provide heart and soul, Verdi’s LA DONNA E MOBILE, Bizet’s TOREADOR SONG and Verdi’s drinking song from LA TRAVIATA are mined for humour and charm and HABANERA from CARMEN is the joyous, celebratory finale.
SYNOPSIS - ACT ONE
SYNOPSIS - ACT TWO
SYNOPSIS - ACT THREE
THE RECORDING REVOLUTIONS
O MIO BABBINO CARO
from GIANNI SCHICHI (1918), Puccini
LA DONNA E MOBILE
from RIGOLETTO (1851), Verdi
TOREADOR SONG
from CARMEN (1875), Bizet
CHANSON BOHEME
from CARMEN (1875), Bizet
EBBEN! NE ANDRO LONTANA
from LA WALLY (1892), Catalani
LIBIAMO NE LIETI CALICI
DRINKING SONG from LA
TRAVIATA(1853), Verdi
CARO NOME
from RIGOLETTO (1851), Verdi
HABANERA
from CARMEN (1875), Bizet
