The next 20 September the Teatro Real Madrid opens the season 2021/2022 with Cinderella, with stage direction by Stefan Herheim and musical direction by Riccardo Frizza. Rossinian opera will be on stage from 23 September to 9 October with a total of 14 functions, in addition to the preview of the 20 September with invitation-only access. “Spain is the country where I live and that has meant a lot in my professional lifeSays Riccardo Frizza. “Precisely from Spain this year comes a recognition that makes me proud: he Opera Prize XXI, awarded by the association of Spanish opera theaters and festivals for the functions of Lucia of Lammermoor that I directed in 2019 en ABAO Bilbao Opera, and that I will receive the 11 September at the La Zarzuela Theater in Madrid”. The awards ceremony can be seen live from the digital platform OperaVision.
Regarding his return to the podium of the Royal Theater, Frizza assures that, by agenda topics, so far he had only directed a single time at Real, “in 2007, when I had the unrepeatable opportunity to offer two versions of Tancredi Rossini, that of Venice and that of Ferrara. It was an extraordinary experience, both from the theatrical point of view –with a splendid stage direction by Kokkos–, as musical, since a very good harmony was created between the creative team and the two casts, and even from the philological point of view thanks to the assistance of the Fondazione Rossini de Pésaro with the critical edition of his score. It was a great opportunity to sound out an opera composed by a Rossini in his early twenties, very accomplished in relation to the age of the composer and certainly an important link in a chain of immortal masterpieces”.
After fourteen years the master Frizza is very satisfied with the “reunion with a spectacular choir and orchestra, two very well balanced solo casts and a lot of enthusiasm. In these years the world has changed and the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the sector, but music and opera have held out, especially in Spain and especially in the Royal Theater, helping us stay the course. Maybe now we are all a little more mature after this experience on a global level”.
Musical director of the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo, Riccardo Frizza is one of the most acclaimed conductors of his generation, regularly invited to international theaters and festivals such as the Opéra de Paris, Lyric Opera de Chicago, Metropolitan Opera in New York, Bavarian State Opera, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Rossini Opera Festival de Pésaro, Festival Verdi de Parma, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Gewandhausorchester de Leipzig y Sachsische Staatskapelle de Dresden.
Photography © Gianfranco Rota