Amore siciliano – Mediterranean opera

Amore Siciliano is a mini-opera based on the popular Calabrian melody Canzone di Cecilia . Madrigals and cantatas by great composers (Sigismondo d'India, Alessandro Scarlatti or Cataldo Amodei) intertwine with folk music, which has been passed down through the centuries by word of mouth, as well as with numerous works by unknown Sicilian composers. Thanks to the rediscovery of these previously unperformed works, Cappella Mediterranea has become a sought-after ensemble on the international music scene. Spanning five centuries of musical history, their Amore Siciliano program invites you on a journey through southern Italy and offers the opportunity to immerse yourself in a musical world equally permeated by folk tradition and art music. By reviving this music, the ensemble establishes a direct link between poetry and old Baroque music, a link that continues in the Mediterranean today through the lullaby ( ninna-nanna ), the tarantella, the lament or the love song.

Amore Siciliano is set in southern Italy and tells a tragic story of love, betrayal and sacrifice. The young Cecilia is engaged to Giuseppe, who is in prison. On Christmas Eve, she meets the powerful nobleman Don Lidio in church, who immediately falls in love with her and promises to free Giuseppe if she returns his love. In order to save her fiancé, Cecilia naively agrees to the proposal. Donna Isabella, Don Lidio's wife, meanwhile discovers her husband's betrayal; as a narrator, she witnesses the events and expresses her anger. In the second act, Giuseppe learns in prison that Cecilia has been unfaithful to him, and Don Lidio and his friend Santino ridicule the whole situation. Don Lidio also invites Cecilia to watch Giuseppe as he is led to the shooting, and she realizes the extent of the deception. Broken by the loss of her beloved and her own fate, she ends up taking her own life.