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http://www.operaonice.eu/images/stories ... on_ice.pdfOpera on ice - press release (ENG) pdf:
http://www.operaonice.eu/images/stories ... ce-ENG.pdfPRESS RELEASEArena di Verona for Opera on Ice 2013
Costumes turned into works of art, floating somewhere between past and present
Verona, September 28, 8.30 p.m.Verona, September 25, 2013 – Preparations for Opera on Ice are reaching the final stage. The show
brings together operatic music and figure skating. Scheduled for September 28 at the Arena di Verona,
the largest opera house in the world, the event features the world's most celebrated ice skating
champions interpreting the best known arias of world-famous operas, performed by the Orchestra and
sung by the Arena di Verona Choir, and solo opera singers of international renown.
New for this edition is the tribute to Luciano Pavarotti, developed in partnership with the Foundation
created by Nicoletta Mantovani:
all the cast's athletes (who will compete in the Soči 2014 Olympics) will
dance to the "Nessun dorma", accompanying the Maestro's rendition of the famous Turandot aria for the
Olympic Games of Turin 2006. That "Nessun dorma" is the last live performance of Pavarotti ever
recorded and its video is part of the travelling exhibition "AMO Pavarotti," hosted these days by the
Palazzo Forti in Verona.
...
THE COSTUMESOpera on Ice is the only on-ice event to feature costumes created exclusively and especially for the
whole cast of the show. The organizers, always looking for something new for each edition of the show
decided this year to dress all its characters with the real costumes of operas and thus they sought the
help of theatre stage costume designer Lorena Marin. The 2013 edition's “wardrobe” features 15
costume changes for the 16 arias. The drawings are the following:
1) “CARMEN” - in partnership with the Fashion Ground Academy school that, together with Playlife
(Gruppo Benetton) created the costumes reinterpreting the Carmen's theme in a new, unusual light
inspired by colour and decorations of 19th century Spain. Combining Spanish tradition with the modernity
of Playlife dresses will surely yield a surprise for the public of all ages with Carolina Kostner playing
Carmen, Bizet's passionate gypsy;
2) “DANCE OF THE HOURS” – The costume developed by Fashion Ground Academy in partnership
with Lorena Marin for Carolina Kostner portrays, in a really impressive way, the hypnotic allure of the
metaphysical passing of the hours. Kostner will be accompanied by the 12 Hot Shivers, dressed with the
costumes supplied by the Arena di Verona Foundation;
3) “AIDA” - as usual the closing act of the show will be Triumph March from Aida. This time the cast will
be dressed in the costumes used for the 1913 staging of the opera, provided by Milan's Casa d’Arte
Fiore, a great honour for Opera on Ice, as well as an occasion to remember the bicentennial of the birth
of Giuseppe Verdi and the centenary of the Arena Festival.
MUSICCarmen, Aida, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Roméo et Juliette and Carmina Burana are just some
of the works whose arias will be sung by great singers accompanied by more than 200 musicians and
singers of the Verona Orchestra and Choir directed by Maestro Fabio Mastrangelo who is
humorously called “the most famous Italian-born Russian director” and who has recently been appointed
Supervisor and Artistic Director of the famous Saint Petersburg theatre Music Hall, from 2007 he is
also Permanent Guest Director at the famous “Mariinskij” theatre in Saint Petersburg. His début at the
Verona Arena was in 2011 with Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, an opera that he will direct in January 2014
at the “Novaja Opera” Moscow theatre.
THE CASTNext to Carolina Kostner, first in the world rankings, world champion in 2012 and four times medallist at
the World Championships, European champion five times, three more times medallist at the European
Championships, winner of the Grand Prix Final of Figure Skating, 2011, and seven time Italian champion,
there will be figure skating champions from all over the world: Italy, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, and
Russia.
Evgeni Plushenko, Russian, champion and world figure skating star and icon, gold medal winner at
Torino 2006, silver medal winner in Vancouver and Salt Lake City, three times World champion and
seven times European champion;
Stéphane Lambiel, Swiss, silver medal winner in Torino 2006, twice World Champion, the Prince of
Spins;
Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, Canadian skating pair, Canada national champions and bronze
metal winners at the World Championships 2013.
Shizuka Arakawa, Torino 2006 winner and World Champion in 2004.
Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, the top Italian skating pair, bronze medal winners in the European
Championships 2013.
Stefania Berton and Ondrej Hotarek, figure skating pair, three times Italian champions, bronze medal
winners at the European Championship 2013. They are the first Italian pair to ever win an European
medal in this speciality.
The Hot Shivers, senior synchronized skating Italian team.
Last but not least, the Flowers, four young skaters from the association A.S.D. Glacies Verona:
Elisa Calanchi, born in 2002; Desiree De Marchi, born in 2003; Greta Gasparato, born in 2004;
Francesca Mascia, born in 2005.
The sports cast this year also features a “special guest”: the Italian Air Force Rhythmic gymnastics team
that includes the “Butterflies”, World and Olympic Champions, that is:
Elisa Blanchi; Romina Laurito; Anzhelika Savrayuk and Elisa Santoni
THE SINGERSThe most important name among the singer is Vittorio Grigolo, a young tenor who is indeed a true
inspiration for the younger opera singers at the event and who will offer us an absolute world premiere of
an excerpt from his new album “Ave Maria”, to be released in October 2013 by Sony Music. Grigolo
will delight the Arena public with excerpts from “Tosca”, “Traviata” and “Rigoletto” as well as Schubert's
“Ave Maria”, interpreted by the Prince of Spins Stéphane Lambiel.
The singers cast includes also the following international stars:
Davit Babayants, Armenian baritone, whose début in the Arena was at the Domingo-Harding Gala in
the Centennial's Festival 2013;
Elisa Balbo, Italian soprano from Bordighera, a Verdi Conservatory (Milan) student recently chosen by
the Pavarotti Foundation to sing in New York;
Natalia Roman, soprano, from Drochia (Moldova).
Last but not least, the voices' cast features two young soloists: the Verona mezzo Alice Marini and tenor
Stefano Tanzillo from Cosenza.
The September 28 repertoire and cast have been carefully selected by the Fondazione Arena di
Verona, directed by Maestro Paolo Gavezzeni.
...
Some figures200: the members of the Arena di Verona Choir and Orchestra. 800: the size (in square metres) of the
ice rink. 35,000: the litres of water needed to build the rink, corresponding to about 1,600,000 ice cubes.
Under the rink 1,088 pipes run for about 43,520 metres, requiring about 400 kw of electric pwer overall,
plus 650 kw of refrigerator power enough to keep 150 two-room apartments cool. Building up all of this
ice requires 42 hours, and 700 hours are needed, on the whole, to build the rink, 900 Kw of heat power
are needed by the diesel oil boiler to thaw the rink after the event is ended.
Ticket InfoThe event is just a few days away and ticket pre-sale is sailing at full speed towards the “sold out” as it
happened in the previous editions. The last tickets are available on Ticketone (
http://www.ticketone.it), at the
Geticket points of sale, at the Unicredit bank branches (go to
http://www.geticket.it to find the nearest ticket
point).
...
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... today's press-conference, just Carolina...
MARMOMACC 2013 INTERVISTA KOSTNER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEuLtl8OrIEPresentazione Opera On Ice 2013:
http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Mediacente ... 86778.html