Abstract
«Luna, lena, lino, lana, lana, lino, lunala / Burlicchete, burlacchete, brugnocchete e cucù.» The moon has its own language, an emperor and extremely lax attitudes when it comes to matters of love. Bonafede, lover of astronomy, is able to convince himself of this through personal experience – two centuries before Neil Armstrong’s spectacular moon landing. Joseph Haydn’s last opera buffa, Il mondo della luna, was premièred during the princely wedding celebrations at Schloss Esterházy in 1777. Based on a comedy by Carlo Goldoni, Haydn’s opera, which sparkles with musical inspiration, is an outlandish, ludicrous expedition into the infinite expanse of the imagination. However, for the “credulous” Bonafede – as his name clearly indicates – the landing on the moon is only staged: the swindler Ecclitico and his friend Ernesto administer a sleeping potion in order to get their hands on Bonafede’s daughters, whom he protects like the apple of his eye. Initiated in the intrigue, his daughters assist the pair in leading him to believe that he has entered a lunar paradise. Changed by his experiences on the moon, in the end Bonafede himself endeavours to bring the couples together.
This International Opera Studio production, which will again be première at the Theater Winterthur, will be staged by the young Japanese director Tomo Sugao and conducted by the promising young conductor Joseph Bastian, winner of the Neeme Järvi Prize at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival.