Description
Set in a luxury clinic poised somewhere between the 1920s and the 1940s, Villa Belcanto weaves together scenes, arias and duets from different operas into a single narrative journey through the music of Donizetti, Handel and Tchaikovsky. What emerges is the transformation of a clinic as a place of memory: no longer merely a private, idealised space, but a shared environment inhabited by a community in which youth, maturity and old age coexist and mirror one another. Within this ambiguous setting, what is meant to heal and protect also reveals itself as a mechanism of organisation, hierarchy and control.
A year-round programme for exceptionally talented young opera singers and répétiteurs, Mascarade Opera offers this new production to showcase the stagecraft and musical talent of the next generation. The performance unfolds as a sequence of musical tableaux in which individual memory gradually opens onto a collective dimension, and in which the characters move through desire, vulnerability, rivalry, crisis and the possibility of renewal. The musical fabric accompanies this gradual shift in perspective, shaping an ensemble narrative in which intimacy and tension, discipline and disorientation, community and solitude coexist. Recorded at Teatro Regio di Parma, the production is directed by Federico Grazzini, with the Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna under the baton of Wyn Davies.
Full performance streamed on OperaVision from 17 July 2026 at 19:00 CET to 17 January 2027 at 12:00 CET: https://operavision.eu/performance/villa-belcanto
CAST
Mezzo-soprano
Anna-Helena Maclachlan
Soprano
Mariam Suleiman
Baritone
Benjamin Gautier
Charles Buttigieg
Bass
Ferdinand Muradyan
Tenor
Taylor Wallbank
Vuyisa Xipu
Répétiteur
Jamie Andrews
Aya Robertson
Actors
Davide Arena
Gabriele Badaglialacqua
Fabio Prieto Bonilla
Marco Bonucci
Maria Laura Caselli
Lucia Donati
Simone Maiorano
Alessandra Martino
Orchestra
Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro comunale di Bologna
Conductor
Wyn Davies
Director
Federico Grazzini
Associate stage director
Anna Laura Miszerak
Sets and costumes
Anna Bonomelli
Technical director
Orlando Bolognesi
Lights
Giuseppe Di lorio
Watch live streams as the performances themselves unfold in the opera house. Enjoy a variety of shows - including opera, operetta, musical theatre, dance, ballet and concerts. Opera connaisseur or curious newcomer, there is something for everyone on OperaVision.
Managed by Opera Europa, OperaVision is a freeview streaming platform supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe funding programme. Between 2025 and 2028, Creative Europe’s support will help Opera Europa to promote and train emerging artists working in opera and dance. Known as Opera Europa Next Generation, this initiative will give visibility and development opportunities to over 560 emerging artists – in person and online, including via OperaVision – and all thanks to the efforts of a consortium of 44 opera houses and talent development organisations from 17 European countries.
https://operavision.eu/
https://www.facebook.com/OperaVisionEU/
https://twitter.com/OperaVision_EU
https://www.instagram.com/OperaVision.EU/
https://www.tiktok.com/@operavision