"The Telephone" and "The Medium" at the Antique Forum on June 26
News публикувана на: 11.06.2020
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On 26 June at 9 pm at the Antique Forum-Augusta Traiana State Opera Stara Zagora will present two chamber operas - "The Medium" and "The Telephone" by composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Directed by Ognyan Draganov, conducted by Viktor Krumov, set and costume design by Teodora Dzhambazova, multimedia by Plamen Asenov, featuring the soloists of the State Opera Stara Zagora Hristiana Hristova and Ivan Kabamitov /"The Telephone"/ and Tereza Brakalova, Neli Necheva, Yanitsa Nesheva, Ivan Kabamitov, Lilyana Hodjeva, Inna Andreeva, Lyuben Chanev-puppets /"The Medium"/ and chamber orchestra.
"The Medium" is a short /one hour/ dramatic opera in two acts on the text and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. The first professional production of the opera was a joint performance with the opera " The Telephone" in February 1947 in New York by the Ballet Society. In 1951, the company premiered a new work, The Ballet. Menotti realized, with the help of the director Alexander Hamid, a film version resembling a " black cinema", starring Anna Maria Albergetti. On 12 December 1948, a television production starring Marie Paurs also appeared on the Studio 1 television channel. The opera was also filmed for Austrian television.
"Menotti's Medouim is something of a lived story, which had its genesis in a séance in which the composer himself participated:
Living in conditions close to squalor, Madame Flora /Baba/ introduces herself as Medouim and, together with her daughter, Monica, summons spirits from the afterlife.She takes Toby, who is mute, as a lodger, but does not have much confidence in him. Business is good until one day, during a séance, she feels a cold hand clutching her throat. Grandma is horrified. When clients come again the next day, she admits it was all a hoax and a forgery, and even demonstrates her tricks to them, but they don't believe her and insist it was all true and they heard the voices of their deceased loved ones, not that of her daughter Monica.She sends them away and decides to kick Toby out too, just in case. When Toby unexpectedly returns, she shoots and kills him without asking. In the end, we are subject to fate and no one can change it.
"The Telephone" or " L,amour a trois", is a comic opera in one act with text and music by Gian Carlo Menotti.It was written for a production by the Ballet Society and was first presented in a poster with " The Medium", and had one performance at the Metropolitan Opera on July 31, 1965.The opera was filmed for Austrian television in 1956 , and the American production in 1988 starred Whoopi Goldberg.
Ben, bearing a gift, comes to visit Lucy at her apartment. He wants to propose marriage to her before she leaves on a trip. Despite his attempts to get her attention, it is a long time before he pop the question. Lucy is constantly preoccupied with endless phone calls. In between conversations, when Lucy leaves the room, Ben even tries to cut the phone cord, but his attempt is unsuccessful. Not wanting to miss his train, Ben leaves without being able to ask for Lucy's hand. But he decides to make one last attempt by calling her on the phone from a street booth and finally manages to propose marriage to her. She agrees and the two engage in a romantic duet over the phone line, at the end of which Lucy thanks him for remembering her phone number!
