DORIAN GRAY

"Dorian Gray stood out as an enthralling performance with a strong emotional impact; the tight pace and the immediate connection between episodes kept the tension high and did not allow the audience to applaud openly, however, at the conclusion there was no shortage of applause and the hall rewarded both the performers and all the creators of the work with long applause."

"[...] A maximally expressive play. [...] Then there is the vigorous and engaging literary reduction by Stefano Simone Pintor, who chooses to maintain Wilde's language, but does not feel compelled to follow him slavishly, elaborating a new and highly original dramaturgy through appropriate and intelligent modifications. [...] Pintor also takes charge of the direction, and he does so with his usual happy propensity for the stage, assembling a compact, whirling performance that never tires during its two good hours without a break. A very right choice, so as not to bend a dramaturgical arc that is always taut until the final resolution."
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars

"The composition, published by Casa Ricordi, is by Matteo Franceschini and Stefano Simone Pintor, already authors of successful contemporary musical theatre works. With this new title, the two artists set themselves the ambitious goal of developing Wilde's reflection on the role of art in our lives, projecting it into contemporary society, in the grip of a profound crisis of values. [...] Here, then, is Franceschini and Pintor's challenge: to create a choral work that is not the portrait of a single individual, called Dorian Gray, but of all those who are reflected in him, from the characters to ourselves. Music, at once physical and impalpable, becomes the ideal instrument to rediscover this immaterial beauty, to be contrasted with the material one. [...] Constant throughout the work is the element of empty frames in which art is mixed with the lives of characters reflecting the excesses, immoderate ambitions and inevitable failures of contemporary society. The wings barely open, revealing scenes divided into six chapters that follow one another on stage with an approach that comes close to a noir series we could easily find on Netflix. Six overlapping stories, with flashbacks and various plots, in a game of illusions and double identities, telling from the point of view of individual characters, the real consequences of extreme behaviour. [...] In an incessant and distressing musical and theatrical crescendo, there is an inevitable involvement aimed at provoking and moving the audience, perhaps the true protagonist of the work. "It is the spectator, and not life, that art truly reflects," Wilde writes in the preface to his Portrait, and so we are literally blinded by the reflection of the audience, of ourselves."

"[...] refined eclecticism of the libretto [...] Positive notes also from the staging by Pintor himself, who made use of the same directing team with which he had overseen the production of Falcone two years ago in Trento. Gregorio Zurla's sets allow agile and kaleidoscopic scene changes, while Alberto Allegretti's costumes place the setting of the opera in the contemporary world. Fiammetta Baldiserri's lighting design is impressive.The audience present, very interested in the proposal, gave the production a polite success, with a few shy ovations to the opera's composer and librettist."

"[...] The collaboration between Franceschini and Pintor, with which Matthias Lošek bids farewell to the artistic direction of the Haydn Foundation, is a masterpiece of extreme topicality, which for 120 uninterrupted minutes captivates the spectator with absolutely original expressive solutions, and does not cease to shake him with questions close to contemporary sensibility: who then is Dorian Gray?"

"A curtain that closes and one that opens, we said, with the appearance of a new work that convinces and captivates. Dorian Gray, the result of two years of symbiotic work between the composer and the librettist/director, is deep, dark, dramatic, with a cinematic narrative style wrapped in multifaceted sonorities. Everything is restless and ambivalent, a perfect expression of Wilde's tale as well as of our own time, equally harnessed in the restlessness of a society equally harnessed in the restlessness of a society decadent in values, poisoned in dreams, tormented by beauty, anguished in thought and violent in actions."

"The work done by Pintor can be seen in the excellent direction, which also makes the seven singers real actors: Giulia Bolcato (Sibyl), Alexandre Baldo (Alan), Ugo Tarquini (James), Manuel Nuñez Camelino (Basil), Mathieu Dubroca (Harry) and Elena Caccamo (Gladys). Laura Muller plays Dorian Gray with diabolical perfidy. Warm applause for all at the premiere on 16 March 2024."

"That the staging is directed by the librettist himself is then a not inconsiderable strength, since Pintor has the awareness of theatrical timing and the ability to make the most of effective acting, with detailed knowledge of the story and text. [...] The good final success, after a two-hour performance attentively followed by the audience, confirms the curiosity aroused by the contemporary repertoire and the successful association between Franceschini and Pintor."
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2 - 4 stars and a half