La Donna Serpente: Teatro Regio Torino (Gianandrea Noseda) (2016)

Alfredo Casella was one of the Generation of the eighties who sought to shake Italian music from its longstanding operatic heritage and the dominance of Puccini. La donna serpente was Casellas only full-scale opera, its fantastic plot based on Carlo Gozzis renowned fairy tale that perpetually alternates between tragedy and comedy, expressed in neo-Classical music that skillfully portrays the sinister and ethereal world of the fairies as well as the intense emotions of the human realm. This production was acclaimed for Arturo Cirillos dreamlike setting and Gianandrea Nosedas pin-point conducting: What energy, what precision! he delivers the complexity of this score with a disconcerting ease.