“Every time I come back to Puccini after singing his contemporaries, I understand better what makes him different, what makes him an operatic genius. He is a composer in whom everything seems to be self-evident, whereas nothing is simple.” Roberto Alagna

Giacomo Puccini, whom we will commemorate in 2024 on the occasion of the centenary of his death, is one of the last jewels of traditional Italian opera. His works have graced all the stages of the world and have moved all generations of music lovers. His seemingly simple and moving language make Manon, Mimì, Tosca or Butterfly unforgettable, who, with their song, reveal humanity to itself. However, such genius was born of passion and hard work. The two works presented certainly feature among his youthful creations, yet are no less endearing for it.

The Messa di Gloria is Puccini’s only major sacred work. Composed at the age of 22, in 1880, when he was finishing his studies in Lucca and preparing to go to Milan, it touches us with a certain naivety shrouded in a thousand moods, at times whimsical and dramatic, interior and ethereal or grandiose… An exceptional talent budding!

A little later, when the publisher Sonzogno announced the organisation of a competition to compose a one-act opera, Puccini, on the advice of his Milanese teacher Amilcare Ponchielli, entered the race. The result is a small opera, The Villi, which tells the love story of the young Anna, who dies of grief after being abandoned by her fiancé. She is avenged by the Willis, the water fairies who punish those who betray their love. Puccini did not win the competition, but the work was noticed. The Villi was the real beginning of an exceptional career.

• THE VILLI : FOR THE FIRST TIME AT THE ORW !
• LAST PERFORMANCE AT THE ORW
  MESSA DI GLORIA : MAY 2018

• WITH THE SUPPORT OF TAX SHELTER OF THE FEDERAL BELGIAN GOVERNMENT AND BEL ARTS FUND