2022 Season of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo Dedicated to the 30 Years Since the Mafia Massacres

The 2022 Season of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo is dedicated to the thirty years since the Mafia massacres, and it's scheduled to open on 20 January with Giuseppe Verdi's Les Vêpres Siciliennes (The Sicilian Vespers), conducted by the theatre's musical director Omer Meir Wellber and staged by Palermo-born director Emma Dante.

The grand-opéra is presented in Palermo for the first time in its five-acts French version. The new show is co-produced with the Teatro San Carlo of Naples, the Teatro Comunale of Bologna, and Madrid's Teatro Real.

Emma Dante is once again opening a new season of the Massimo following the success of Richard Strauss' Feuersnot, of Hans Werner Henze's Gisela! and of Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth. And she does so through a highly symbolic title like Les Vêpres Siciliennes, thirty years after the 1992 Mafia massacres. The tragic deaths of judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and of the men and women of their security service, triggered a season of uprises and social participations which resulted, among other things, in the reopening of the Teatro Massimo and the re-appropriation of urban spaces. Some of these spaces are found in Emma Dante's staging, where today's Palermo plays as the background to the story of oppression and uprising set to music by Verdi.

The sets are by Carmine Maringola, costumes are by Vanessa Sannino, choreographic movements are by Sandro Maria Campagna, while the choreographies are by Manuela Lo Sicco and the light design is by Cristian Zucaro. The Chorus of the Teatro Massimo and the Corps de Ballet are led by Ciro Visco and Davide Bombana, respectively.

Lead interpreters on stage are Selene Zanetti as the Duchesse Hélène; Piero Pretti as Henri; Mattia Olivieri as Guy de Montfort, while Luca Tittoto plays Jean Procida. For the shows on 22 and 25 January the same roles will be covered by Maritina Tampakopoulos, Leonardo Caimi, Gezim Mishketa, and Fabrizio Beggi. Further roles are interpreted by Irida Dragoti, Matteo Mezzaro, Francesco Pittari, Alessio Verna, Andrea Pellegrini, and Gabriele Sagona.

There will be a total of five performances, scheduled on 20, 22, 23, 25 and 26 January.