The shootings of the movie “The Opera!”, a musical-opera directed, written, and scripted by Davide Livermore and Paolo Gep Cucco, are underway in Turin, with an international cast that features, among others, Valentino Buzza, Mariam Battistelli, Vincent Cassel, Erwin Schrott, with the participation of Caterina Murino, Fanny Ardant, Rossy De Palma.
“The Opera!” is produced by Showlab with Rai Cinema, with stage costumes realized by Dolce&Gabbana. The movie was realized with the support of the Film Commission Torino Piemonte.
The shootings will take place entirely in Turin and will end on the 1st of August.
“The Opera!” tells the story of all stories: two lovers on the day of their marriage, a cruel fate, and a journey beyond life. It’s the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, told in a musical-opera in which the myth is transposed into a contemporary narrative language where words, music, opera, sound design, fashion, and visual arts meet each other. It is a visionary movie, that breaks the mold and the preconceived ideas on opera, musicals, and cinema, with a new and poignant language.
“The Opera!” uses the best arias from Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Mozart, Vivaldi, Boito, and Gluck, inserting them into the flow of the narration, where spoken and sung word blend in a communicative explosion in which different styles and genres fuse with the beauty of the myth, creating a new emotional language.
The movie uses the most innovative technologies: shootings from the inside of a virtual set, and the use of SGI and VFX to narrate the extraordinary story of Orpheus in the Underworld.
Executive production is curated by Luigi De Giglio for Digilife Movie.
The shootings of the movie take place inside the Prodea Led Studios in Turin: the first complete cinematographic virtual set in Italy. One of the most innovative in the world, thanks to the 1.8 pitch LED technology. On an international level, it appears among the biggest, with a diameter of 16 mt. and a height of 8 mt. At the moment, overall, considering the height/diameter ratio, it’s the highest in the world.
“The Opera!” produced by Showlab with Rai Cinema; realized with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte.
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Davide Livermore
Born in Turin, he is the director of the National Theater of Genova, one of the most recognized opera directors in the world, and the only director in the history of the Scala Theater to realize four premieres in a row.
He was Supervisor and Artistic Director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia. Active as a director of opera and prose since 1998, during his brilliant and eclectic career he also worked as a set, costume, and lighting designer, dancer, screenwriter, actor, and teacher, in addition to performing as a singer in the most important theatres of the world.
Among his most significant works: Attila, Tosca, Macbeth for the premiere of La Scala in a worldwide broadcast, Un Ballo in Maschera for the Bolshoi Theater, the first opera with a set completely in video form for Aida at the Sydney Opera House, Norma, with Gustavo Gimeno on the podium, Idomeneo with Fabio Biondi; Rossini’s La Cenerentola for the Opera of Philadelphia, the Traviata directed by Zubin Metha for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Rossini’s La gazza ladra at the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele for the Seoul Arts Center in Seoul. His staging for the Sicilian Vespers at the Regio Theater in Turin, which introduced the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Festa de l'Unità, was featured in 2011’s Top Ten Musical Events chart by the magazine “Musical America”.
Paolo Gep Cucco
Creative Director of the Entertainment Design D-wok company and Creative Director for 10 years of the Prodea Group, he was the creator and director of the Dubai Water Canal Grand Opening, of the Opening Ceremony of the Word Archery Game 2011 with Davide Livermore, of the Closing Ceremony of the World Championship of Swimming 2009, of the Opening Ceremony of the 2009 FISU World University Games, and of the show for Turin’s New Year’s Eve 2012. He was the director and content creator of the video project Tiziano Ferro 2015 in stages and the European tour, of the tour in stages of Cesare Cremonini and Marco Mengoni’s one.
He created entertainment design and video design projects for Lyrical Opera in the most important theaters in the world for productions such as Don Pasquale, Tamerlano (La Scala), Aida (Sydney Opera House, the first opera in the world with scenes completely in video form), La Boheme (Philadelphia and Caracalla), The Magic Flute (Stavanger and Muscat), Ciro in Babilonia (New York and Rof), Falstaff (San Paolo), Othello and La Forza del Destino (Valencia), Un Ballo in Maschera (Moscow, Bolshoi), Tosca and Carmen (Genova).
He was a show designer in four premieres at the Scala: Attila, Tosca, Macbeth, and in the TV show A riveder le stelle. He is a musician and a composer of soundtracks and worked with artists such as Manu Chao, Meg, Mau Mau, 883.
Photo credit: Niccolò Creazzo
