The music publisher Rai Trade specialises in children’s operas as an important part of its catalogue. These are works where young people are not just part of the audience, but take an active part in the production. Four new works are presented here.

Roberta Vacca: Chi rapì la topina Costanza? (Who kidnapped the mouse-girl Konstanze?)

Roberta Vacca’s work is a free arrangement of Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail [The Abduction from the Seraglio]. The text by C. F. Bretzner has been newly adapted by librettist Paola Campanini, taking as its starting point a play on words suggested by the translation of “rapimento/ratto = kidnapping/rat”. From the rat to the mouse – why shouldn’t the story of Konstanze and Belmonte, with Pedrillo, Blonde, Pasha Selim and Osmin the comic overseer be transformed into a story full of variety, set in a world peopled with animals which resembles the human world in an affectionate (but also grotesque) way?  The composition takes Mozart’s score as its starting point and uses some of the scenes from the work. Although the most important melodic lines remain almost intact, what results is a fresh look at the work. The plot and characters are newly conceived, but follow the orchestration and relationship to the text with a sensitivity suited to the present.

Roberta Vacca
Who kidnapped the mouse-girl Konstanze? (Chi rapì la topina Costanza?)
A cheerful comedy for soloists, chorus, two narrators and ensemble. Libretto by Paola Campanini
Soloists: Narrator/singer 1, narrator/singer 2, S1, S2/Mez, S3, Mez, T, Bar, B1, B2; chorus (children or adults): minimum 2S, 2Mez, 2A, 2T, 2Bar, 2B
Ensemble: fl/picc, cl in B flat/b.cl, bsn, tpt, perc (2), str
Duration: c. 60 minutes


Mario Pagotto: Arcibaldo Sonivari

We find ourselves in the kingdom of Roccasilente with its industrious citizens. There everyone is so busy making material goods that they have forgotten the value of music and the arts. Only when, following a magic trick, the instruments stop playing and the notes disappear, do the inhabitants notice that they have neglected music. After the solving of a musical puzzle, a canon, by the versatile Archibald Sonivari (a composer and explorer), things stop for a moment, followed by a surprise which reveals unexpected ways out.

Mario Pagotto
Archibald Echo (Arcibaldo Sonivari)
Opera for children in one act. Libretto by Anna Valentini
Soloists: S, Mez, Bar, dancer
Ensemble: fl/picc, cl in B flat/b.cl, bsn, pf, perc (1), vn, va, vc
Duration: ca. 60 Minuten


Mauro Montalbetti: Brimborium! A musical fairy tale

Brimborium! was created in the original spirit of the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte festival in Montepulciano. The idea of the piece follows the example of Hans Werner Henze’s Il Pollicino and is designed to bring children and professional musicians together in an opera production which is kept as simple as a fairy tale. In an old cupboard lives a group of discarded objects. Caught in the repetitions of time, half asleep with boredom, they abandon themselves to their obsessions and their griefs. They are tormented by memories of an outside world, the existence of which seems more and more doubtful to them. Then suddenly the sound of a violin is heard: a young musician is practising in the old house. The outside world becomes a cry for attention. Gradually the objects are filled with hope. But how should they go about escaping from the cupboard? Only when the objects join together and put their petty squabbles to one side will they succeed in regaining freedom. The lock springs open, the door opens. The objects come out of the cupboard. Outside a world awaits them which they may no longer recognise.

Brimborium! is about how difficult it is to pluck up courage to be human and to overcome your own anxieties. At the same time it is also a parable about the utopian power and the social function of music.

Mauro Montalbetti
Brimborium! A musical fairy tale. Libretto by Francesco Peri
Orchestral version (2012)
Soloists: S, Mez, children’s voices, Bar, children’s chorus, 1 dancer
Orchestra: 2,0,2,0 – 0,1,1,0 – perc – str; young instrumentalists: fl, cl, b.cl, pf, hp, vc – Chamber version (2013)
Ensemble: fl, cl, b.cl, hn in F, tpt in B flat, perc, vib, hp, pf, str
Duration: c. 70 minutes


Lucio Gregoretti: La fugitive (The refugee)

La fugitive (Rome 2009, Münster 2013) is an opera which deals with the fate of unfortunate people who, driven by hunger and poverty, flee from their country. Ten-year-old orphan Djamila has just landed in Europe. She finds shelter in a camp of illegal refugees. The camp is dispersed by the police, but Djamila succeeds in escaping. Camille, a girl of the same age, helps her to escape and hides her in her school class where all the other children and the teacher welcome her in a friendly way. But Djamila is wanted by the authorities. To help her, the pupils decide to adopt her. But as we know, children cannot adopt other children ... At the end the chorus strikes up a “song in praise of the holidays”, in the hope that the grown-ups will one day learn to behave like children.    

Lucio Gregoretti
La fugitive (the refugee)
Opera in three acts in the form of an optimistic and comforting fairy tale, with an overture and some ballets. Libretto by Daniel Goldenberg
Soloists: 4 children’s voices, S, T, Bar; children’s chorus
Ensemble: fl/picc, ob, cl in B flat, asax, bsn, tpt, tbn, perc (2), pf/keyboard, str
Duration: c. 60 minutes
   
Andrea Fontemaggi
(translation: Liz Robinson)