Giuseppe Valentino Buzza

When two goddesses vie for his allegiance, a Roman general is faced with a thorny dilemma. But then his dead forefathers arrive to help make up his mind. Based on a book by Cicero, Mozart’s dramatic serenade was written at age 15 and neglected for the next two hundred years. With this subversive, dreamlike production, Teatro La Fenice’s offers a rare opportunity to discover one of Mozart’s lesser-known works.

Catone in Utica is the story of the power struggle between two giants of the Roman world, the dictator Julius Caesar (Cesare) and Cato the Younger (Catone), the upholder of traditional republican ideals. This battle of political wills forms the backdrop to the military action in which Cesare and Catone are engaged in 49-48 BC and to an involved secondary love plot. Catone in Utica was staged for the first time in 1737 in Verona and is one of the last operas by Antonio Vivaldi. Although only Acts II and III survive, this work is considered to be one of the greatest operatic compositions of the Venetian composer. After the successful staging of Vivaldi’s Farnace in December 2021, Teatro Comunale di Ferrara ‘Claudio Abbado’ offers a a chance to discover live a rarely-performed production by the 'red priest', as Vivaldi was known.

Modern version of Orpheus and Eurydice.