La pietra del paragone

Overview

LA PIETRA DEL PARAGONE (The Touchstone) concerns the Count Asdrubale who is wealthy and therefore of great interest to many women – notably Aspasia, Fulvia, and Clarice. Only Clarice, however, loves him for something other than his riches. There are also male hangers-on: the corrupt journalist Macrobio, the poetaster Pacuvio, and Giocondo, who is Asdrubale's true friend, but who has his own eyes on Clarice. To test his friends and would-be fiancées, Asdrubale pretends that he has been bankrupted. Sure enough, only Clarice and Giocondo stand by him, and when his fortune is "miraculously" saved, the three have the last laugh on everyone else... or do they? This production is set in what looks like the early 1960s. But the real innovation is the use of blue screen technology: using tiny cameras and sets, along gigantic screens hanging over the stage, a kind of video mixing makes the singers appear to inhabit any number of fanciful settings and perform a myriad of improbable actions.

Cast

Sonia Prina

La marquesa Clarice

Jennifer Holloway

La baronessa Aspasia

Laura Giordano

Donna Fulvia

N/A

François Lis

Il conte Asdrubale

N/A

José Manuel Zapata

Il cavalier Giocondo

N/A

Joan Martín-Royo

Macrobio

N/A

Christian Senn

Pacuvio

N/A

Filippo Polinelli

Fabrizio

Jean-Christophe Spinosi

Self - Conductor

Gioachino Rossini

Self - Composer