(June 19 2017) A piece of Palermo on Japanese ground: the Traviata of Palermo’s Teatro Massimo won the Tokyo audience in the third stage of a tour that has touched the cities of Hamamatsu and Nagoya in recent days. A success on the stage at the Bunka Kaikan Theater – in the presence of Italian Ambassador in Japan Giorgio Starace – with sixteen minutes of applause, the room crowded up to the last place, the Palermo artist Desirée Rancatore in tears for the emotion and a row of three hundred people out of the theater to ask for an autograph of the protagonists. In addition to Rancatore, Leo Nucci (with a personal tribute) and other protagonists were applauded: the conductor Ivan Ciampa, the orchestra, choir, and dancers. The Traviata, directed by Mario Pontiggia, set design by Francesco Zito and lights by Bruno Ciulli, represents the great tradition of Italian opera, with scenes built in the theater workshops of Teatro Massimo that evoke the great Liberty season. “A great affirmation for the city of Palermo and for Italy,” said Ambassador Starace, “a great representation of great voices, scenes, and costumes”. “Thank you, thanks to everyone”, echoes the superintendent of the Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, Francesco Giambrone, “I am happy with this success that excites me and I am really happy with the work of everyone: orchestra, choir, dancers, technicians, staff”. With him, the artistic director Oscar Pizzo, the operating director Elisabetta Tesi, the production manager Giovanni Mazzara, the director of the equipment Renzo Milan, the staff. (Red)
