Appointment with the Maggio Fiorentino

The Maggio Fiorentino calls on a film director like Luca Guadagnino to open; and entrusts him with a musical theatre work of searing topicality. In Naples, the multi-award-winning musical about the boys from Nisida returns, which first tackled the themes of fragility in 2002; later the inspiration for a TV series. In Milan, the Filarmonica della Scala continues the cycle of Open Rehearsals for charity purposes, with a programme featuring a masterpiece such as Stravinsky's 'Jeu de Cartes'.

The 88th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino opens on the 19th (replays on 22-26) at the Teatro del Maggio with the opera 'The Death of Klinghoffer', by John Adams, with direction and sets by Luca Guadagnino, who makes his festival debut after his many successes as a film director. From 1991, it was only staged in Italia in 2002 in Ferrara and Modena. John Adams (1947) is one of today's leading composers. Starting from minimalism, he has expanded its language, with a strong dramatic tension. His works include 'Nixon in China' and 'Doctor Atomic'. "The Death of Klinghoffer questions from the very moment it appears the profound complexity of conflicts that sink into myth to break into history," Guadagnino comments, "the sublime purity of John Adams's music and Alice Goodman's libretto will be my firm guide in staging this immense opera at the Maggio Fiorentino, which I am honoured to open. The opera is based on the sensational news event of October 1985: the hijacking and hijacking of the Italian cruise ship 'Achille Lauro' by terrorists from the Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The affair, which attracted worldwide attention, ended with the murder of one of the passengers, Leonard Klinghoffer, an American citizen of the Jewish religion, confined to a wheelchair, whose body was then thrown into the sea by the terrorists.

At the Augusteo Theatre from 10 April to 3 May the musical 'C'era una volta... Scugnizzi'; music and lyrics by Claudio Mattone, dialogues by Enrico Vaime; inspired by the film 'Scugnizzi' by Nanni Loy. Debuted in 2002, multi-awarded, the show has been successful all over Italia, in various editions with six hundred replicas. It returns to the Augusteo with its story that tackles, between fable and reality, the problem of so-called at-risk children, their uncertainties and their hopes. It was the first show to tackle this theme, later taken up by many others.

On the 12th at 7.30 p.m. at La Scala, open rehearsal of the Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Michele Mariotti - who is music director of the Rome Opera and (newly appointed) conductor of the Rai Orchestra in Turin. A beautiful programme, with Stravinsky's 'Jeu de cartes', which is rarely performed (wrongly, because it is very beautiful) in Italia. As always for the Filarmonica's Open Rehearsals, the aim is charitable. This time, the proceeds from the concert will support 'Educating for hope: prevention and care with families in Corvetto', a project of the Martinengo Cooperative aimed at enhancing the home interventions of professional educators. The funds raised will make it possible, in particular, to closely follow the most vulnerable families through personalised interventions, educational accompaniment paths and school and relational support.