Il furioso Gaetano nell’Isola di S. Domingo

ovvero le mirabolanti memorie d’un musicista visionario

PRIMARY AND LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Participatory Opera, reduced and adapted for young audiences based on Donizetti’s Il furioso nell’isola di S. Domingo

Donizetti Opera-Copertia-Furioso Gaetano-ovvero LE MIRABOLANTI MEMORIE D’UN MUSICISTA VISIONARIO

CAST
Music by Gaetano Donizetti
Music dramaturgy Alberto Zanardi
In collaboration with Mariagrazia Mercaldo
Conductor Giulio Arnofi
Director Manuel Renga

Donizetti Opera Ensemble
In collaboration with the Orchestra del Mare

DESCRIPTION
Maestro Gaetano Donizetti, aged and struck by madness, is in a nursing home in a small French village; an Italian servant named Sancio has been assigned to care for him. He no longer concerns himself with music, living alone, isolated, with a vacant stare. When he regains some strength, he locks himself in his room and reads, writes, talks to himself… No one knows how to help him anymore! One spring day, Sancio takes advantage of the door left open by his master and listens to him: Donizetti talks about his works, his stories, his music… and as he does so, for a moment, his eyes light up again. Then an idea forms in Sancio’s mind: why not recover one of the maestro’s works, written long ago, and try to use it to restore him to his former vitality? Il furioso nell’isola di S. Domingo (The Madman on the Island of St. Domingo) is just what he needs.
Listening to the overture, as if by magic, everything comes back to him and reality, memory and fantasy intermingle. Two actors and five singers will tell this bizarre, adventurous, dangerous and entertaining story.
It is a story about the dangers of being alone, how love and friendship can heal all wounds, about acceptance and imagination.
In the end, the Maestro realises that only with the help of Sancho, now considered his faithful squire and friend, can he remember the ending of the story and perhaps change it!
‘In the kingdom of fantasy, Sancho, anything is possible!’

TEACHERS TRAINING DAY
Saturday 18 October, 2025 | from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM | Teatro Donizetti
Free training course led by the director and the educational office, during which all teachers (not only those teaching music) will be introduced to the opera and the activities that will make the students the protagonists of the show, through songs, costumes and objects made in class.

FAMILY OPERA PERFORMANCE
Saturday 29 November, 2025 | 3:30 PM (workshop at 2:30 PM) | Teatro Donizetti
For information and to purchase your ticket, see the title in the Opera Family section at this link