Amorous torments

Love is not always a positive feeling, quite the contrary. It is often painful and sometimes a destructive force that leads to betrayal, jealousy and death. In Cavalleria Rusticana, the opera by composer Pietro Mascagni, as in the original novella by Giovanni Verga, love kills. Mastery and suspense in the lyrical diptych at the Lac Theatre in Lugano, Switzerland, at the theatre premiere with an audience visibly moved. From 15 to 21 September 2025, Francis Poulenc's opera La voix humaine will be staged, featuring the vocal power of Anna Caterina Antonacci, and Cavalleria Rusticana, directed by Emma Dante and conducted by Francesco Cilluffo at the helm of the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, with the Swiss Radio and Television Choir conducted by Donato Sivo. 
A striking premiere enhanced by Mascagni's powerful music for the birthday of LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, the modern cultural centre, a magnet and meeting place designed by Ticino architect Ivano Gianola, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in September 2025. 
Cavalleria Rusticana, as we remember from our school days, tells the story of the young Turiddu who, after being left by Lola for the wealthy Alfio, seduces Santuzza. The girl, wounded and jealous, reveals Lola's betrayal to Alfio, triggering a rustic duel that ends with Turiddu's death. The powerful voice of tenor Stefano La Colla, of Sicilian origin and a graduate of the Pietro Mascagni Conservatory in Livorno, an artist known internationally after his debut in 2015 at La Scala in Milan as Calaf in Turandot, successfully conveyed in the Lugano performance the power of passionate love in a warm and strongly religious 19th-century Sicily, well represented by the succession of large crosses constantly on stage. 
The first performance in Rome was followed, in just seven months, by translations into Polish, Russian, Lithuanian and other languages. The musician, a stubborn and strong-willed man, thus made his great skills as a composer known to the world," recounted Milanese music critic Giovanni Gavezzani in a beautiful analysis before each of the four performances.
If love and loneliness are the central themes, hidden between the sequences is also the importance of wealth, for which the material dimension, a topical issue, seems to count for a lot. Making a good marriage is important: thus, in the Sicilian village, Lola prefers to marry Alfio because he is richer.
A similar love affair, but in a more modern context, is the equally eagerly awaited performance on Lake Lugano of La Voix Humaine (written by Jean Cocteau and composed by Francis Poulenc in 1958). Here, the pain and despair of a woman abandoned by her lover is explored as she tries to cling to him through an interrupted telephone conversation. Here too, the theme of loneliness is explored: the central theme of abandonment and pain ends with an extreme gesture on the part of the protagonist.  
The theatre season in Ticino thus began to loud applause. For information on upcoming theatre, dance, music, musicals, family shows and festivals, simply visit www.laclugano.ch.
A suggestion: theatre lovers should not miss Shakespeare's “Richard III” on 21 and 22 October 2025, directed by Antonio Latella, who adapted the play together with Federico Bellini, with Vinicio Marchioni in the lead role. Gabriele Lavia will be King Lear in the play of the same name, which he also directs (12–14 November).  For dance, among the various events on the agenda, here is a suggestion for a wonderful Christmas gift (dates 19–21 December 2025): Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, reinterpreted by Mauro Bigonzetti with dancers from the MM Contemporary Dance Company and the OSI conducted by Philippe Béran. Deluxu.it Copyright