Much applauded at the Royal Opera House in London in the role of Werther directed by Antonio Pappano and alongside Joyce DiDonato and in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Mr. Grigolo has recently appeared at the Met in New York, in Roméo et Juliette alongside Diana Damrau.
The house has an unbeatable location. Situated halfway up the hill that gradually becomes mountain, the San Bartolo – the only high stretch of coast on the Adriatic sea along with Trieste and Ancona – it faces a large bay. A lush vegetation surrounds the white building from early spring to late autumn. During summer it provides a shelter from the heat of the blazing sun and also from the curious eyes of the bathers crowding the beach – mainly locals as this is not a trendy beach; it’s simply a nice place -. Vegetation could not, however, shield the sounds. So, in the years gone by, it was quite common for people lying on the beach – including me – to hear the Maestro’s powerful voice singing a piece or some musical charade. It was quite something!
At the beginning of the eighteenth century starts to develop a type of opera uniquely based on comic characters. It was a consequence of Zeno’s reform which separated the comic scenes within an opera, from all the rest. Two types of performances started then to take shape, marking a turning point in the history of opera. They were the interludes or intermezzi and a music comedy in Neapolitan dialect, called Commedeja pee Mmuseca.
Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua attended the successful performance of Peri’s Euridice in Florence, which was probabily witnessed also by Monteverdi himself. The Duke realized immediately the originality of this new entertainment and the prestige that would reflect on the lord that sponsored it.