Alessandra Premoli

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REVIEWS

• S. Ender - derStandard.de                                                                                                         [translated from german]

The première on Monday evening at the Courtyard of the Theology Department is a rare operatic pleasure: a pleasure to be heard, a pleasure to be seen. That then also lead to dreaming! And with the evocation of the power of dreams begins the prologue, before the nymph Dafne, who spurns her lover, drifts on her emotions. Director Alessandra Premoli finds expressive images that are intensified by the shadow theater "alTREtracce" and add new dimensions - for example when the house façade is being used.  This opens up a dimension of the magical, as poetry flares up, amplified by the music. The costumes by Mariana Fracasso are a dream in white,  Alessandra Premoli tells in simple, poetic images the story of a young woman who was hurt and traumatized by male desire. Enthusiasm for all this.

• T. Molke - Online Musik Magazin                                                                                               [translated from german]

To emphasize the aspect of the dream, Alessandra Premoli starts in her presentation in a hospital room or perhaps a sleep laboratory.   On a bed lies a woman, Dafne, who receives several injections from an obsessively chewing gum, Amore, while a doctor, who later, among other things, slips into the figure of the scholar Alfesebio, takes notes and talks with the manager of the hospital, the later as goddess Venus (Venere) and acting as Dafne's confidant Filena exchanges.  With a white mask, Andrea Pellegrini appears as Sonno and summons his three servants, who are supposed to be mythologically the three sons of the sleeping god.[…] As figures, three shadow theater players of the shadow theater alTREtacce perform, forming an important part of the staging. Time and again, as characters on stage and actors behind the stage, they create wonderful visual effects with impressive shadows that immerse the viewer in a dream world.   While it is still relatively bright in the courtyard due to the incident daylight, they appear with masks on the stage and let the awakening Dafne dive into a huge white waving sheet or surround the god Apollo with small lamps with a kind of halo. Musically, this early work Cavallis is a gem. Although the story does not prove to be suitable for the repertoire with the incoherently contiguous scenes, it is definitely worth seeing in this imaginative staging by Alessandra Premoli.

• R. Kager - Frankfurter Allgemeine

        [translated from german]

With deliberately economical means, the director Alessandra Premoli tells the story of the unfortunate love of Phoebus Apollo, taken from librettist Giovanni Francesco Busenello from the "Metamorphoses" of Ovid, to the nymph Daphne. […] The hospital scenario also corresponds to the historicizing, yet contemporary costumes designed by Mariana Fracasso:  All are white, with the exception of Apoll's black jacket and Cupid's equally black wings.   This pallor gives the scene a surreal atmosphere even without opulent stage design. Following the principles of Jerzy Grotowski's "poor theater", Premoli focuses on every small movement, every fine movement of young singers, mostly finalists and winners of the annual Cesti singing competition of the Innsbruck Festival, which in some cases takes on some of the twenty or so roles.[…] When, at the end of Apoll's touching lament, laurel branches are placed on the front edge of the stage and the three masked people shine with simple bulbs on them to transform the back of the courtyard into the silhouette of a tree, it suddenly becomes cold despite the heat: only as a shadow Daphne present, watching himself in the deathbed. Blackout.

• A. Neilson - Operawire

The director for this production was Alessandra Premoli, who used the prologue as a source for her interpretation of the work. As dawn is about to break, the god Sonno bids his servants to fill mankind’s minds with dreams, infusing them with symbols and visions, and turning shadows into beasts. It is the time when reality becomes blurred and is in a state of flux. Premoli’s characters, therefore, tread the narrow path between sleep and wakefulness. Shadows in the form of projections against a white-clothed background, and shadowy figures, who double the main characters, lead, terrorize or reflect their semi-conscious states. The drama is set in a hospital of sorts. Dafne lies in a bed in a deep sleep, or coma, while the drama begins to unfold around her. As she becomes partially conscious, so reality continues in a dream-like way, happiness giving way to panic, with bizarre happenings, such as her transformation into a laurel tree, with shadowy visions and apparitions everywhere. It was an excellent idea, that bonded itself to the text seamlessly, and produced an engaging presentation.

The costumes, designed by Mariana Fracasso, were simple, but effective and mainly in white, from an indeterminate period, contrasting and complementing nicely the sometimes dark, sometimes bright ambience of the sets. Apollo stood out, having more colourful, more clearly defined attire, giving him the appearance of a pop star, of someone accustomed to adoration. 

• J-F. Lattarico - classiquenews.com

        [translated from french]

A “young” production of high level and a coming back to the 17th century’s repertoire, that since a long time is the trademark of this tyrolean festival. Cavalli comes out with the honour of a almost model success  by the choice  of a founding opera. The sobriety of the sets, some curtains faintly arranged, the shadow plays and the doubling of certain roles by the actors, remember the importance of the mirror playing this inaugural opera under the metamorphosis’ baroque mark par excellence , orchestrated by Alessandra Premoli, brightened up by the magnificent costumes of Mariana Fracasso, were one of the elements for the success of this juvenile production, for nothing inferior to the “adult” productions. 

• Gilberto Mion - teatro.it

        [translated from italian]

We are in a large patio, but with little space for the stage, and the orchestra relegated to a corner. Nonetheless, the lively staging of Alessandra Premoli is dissolved in rhythm, and produces seductive effects. Virtually devoid of scenery, it relies however on the fascination of a back theater of shadows created by the Italian team of alTREtracce. Guessed the simple costumes of Marianna Fracasso.

• V. Mascherpa - Operaclick 

        [translated from italian]

The gestures of the interpreters are very appreciable due to the direction of Alessandra Premoli, with the help of the elegant shadow projections of the alTREtracce group and of the costumes designed by Mariana Fracasso. The gestures entrusted by Premoli to the interpreters created a series of effective frameworks, that highlighted the situations represented by music and libretto with nonchalant adherence and did not in any way feel the absence of a proper scenographic installation, enough architecture of the courtyard to create the appropriate suggestions of space, with the help of a skillful and not prevaricating lighting.

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• Giulia Clai  -  sipario.it 

        [translated from italian]

The direction of Alessandra Premoli, with a series of effective pictures, did not make too much the lack of a spectacular scenographic system, and with the help of skilful play of light, designed by the company aLTREtracce, has created engaging suggestions.