or The Wife to Force

di JOHANN ADOLPH HASSE (199-1783)

(Naples, 1729)

Musical direction Massimiliano Toni

Direction and choreography Deda Cristina Colonna

Scene Gisella Bigi

Costumes Giovanni Gobbi

CBallet of the Coccia Theater

Symphony Orchestra of the Coccia Theater

Ensemble The Third Practice

Dorilla Cristina Biaggio
Balanzone Federico Sacchi

Coccia Theater - Novara

26, 27 November 2006

"La serva scaltra" already appears in the title as a comic interlude; the names of the two characters Dorilla and Balanzone refer to that Commedia dell’Arte that made Italy so famous abroad in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, total theatrical genre in which the actor's skills blend with those of the dancer and do not exclude singing, juggling, the acrobatics.

The Commedia dell’Arte is the reference genre of our show, which, albeit philological in the basic intentions, it is not intended as a reconstruction. “Dorilla and Balanzone” was represented as an interlude, probably with the curtain closed, in the proscenium, to entertain the public during the scene changes of a serious opera by Hasse, the "Tigrane". This feature too - that is, being representable in an almost two-dimensional stage space, timeless and without place - it brings it closer in structure to the Commedia dell’Arte. The characters tell each other

or already in the name, they lack the individual depth of psychological study that will be typical of nineteenth-century theater, they express themselves in action, they live almost like puppets. For these reasons we wanted a scenography without thickness - two-dimensional in fact - in which the characters are suspended in a fiction with an ancient flavor., entrusted to the skill of the interpreters through the very structure of the action.

For the choreography of the "Villano Ball" that concludes the interlude, the tradition of the Italian Commedia dell Arte in Germany has handed down a reference text, the “Neue und Cuerieuse Theatralische Tanz-Schule” or “Nuova e Curiosa Scuola de’ Balli Theatrali ”, published in Nuremberg in 1716 by the Italian dance teacher Gregorio Lambranzi. In Lambranzi's treatise, the grotesque characters and masks that inspired us for the figures of the villagers are portrayed., mute characters who, in addition to appearing in the final dance, help Dorilla in the realization of the joke against Balanzone. Compared to Hasse's original score, which included the "Villano Ball" as the only dance, some additions have been made, taken from other comic interludes by the same composer, onr allow the development of grotesque scenes.

Reviews

The taste of farce

[…] A nice success also smiled on another, perhaps even more significant proposal of the Novara musical autumn at the Coccia Theater: the interlude by Johann Adolf Hasse La Serva Scaltra, or the wife by force(Dorilla e Balanzone). […] In this case the show, entirely produced by Coccia, is entrusted to the refined directorial hand of Deda Cristina Colonna, who thought of a staging inspired by the masks of the Commedia dell’Arte, making additions for the choreography of the "Villano Ball" that concludes the interlude, inside which are portrayed masks and grotesque figures and mutated characters who help the astute servant Dorilla. […] Massimiliano Toni's baton at the head of the instrumental ensemble La Terza Prattica is truly admirable, formed by original tools. A complex that plays without pedantic philological intentions, but with spontaneous freshness. This little executive jewel goes perfectly with the playful directorial and choreographic trait of the show […].

Alessandro Mormile

The work, December 2005

In the niche of the Baroque opera

We are not many: those who have an interest participate. The true one, that makes you face the cold. Because you can't find Baroque work at the communication supermarket, at the amusement multiplex. You have to go look for it in the niche, move the blue curtain and look among the small and precious things. Impolverate, Certain. But a well-given wipe of a rag brings out surfaces of an astonishing sheen. "The shrewd servant" or The wife by force. Interlude in music in one act and three parts. Music by Johann Adolf Hasse. […]

Reading by Massimiliano Toni, concertmaster and harpsichord conductor, it makes everything truly communicative: few gestures, Give as a blessing, to which the instrumental ensembe "La Terza Prattica" responds with energy, always "actively", punctually, "forward". A homogeneous and balanced group, formed by a base of stringed instruments (whoever affirms that the baroque instruments are out of tune will have to think again) and enriched by some "colors": the Spanish guitar, the bassoon, the recorder, cimbali, raganella. All philological, all alive. better, vitale.

The interlude is about to end with the dance entering the scene: the touch, on the tip of shoes, by Deda Cristina Colonna, director "in toto" of the successful Novara work. The dance of the villans is the triumph of grotesque scenes: pantomime actors, masks that twirl, characters from the Fantabosco: a little priest with a duck-shaped canopy passes by, ninja peasants cross their sticks. They move in strict style. A surge that takes us one breath to the end: the marriage, where Dorilla appears on stage with a wig that is eighteen meters high! Eyes wide open. Grotesque. Convinced applause closes the curtain. Now it will be up to wait. because you can't find the Baroque work at the communication supermarket, at the amusement multiplex. You have to go look for it in the niche, move the blue curtain and look among the small and precious things.

Diego Boy

The Corriere di Novara, 30.11.2005