La Fenice Opera House: Sale Apollinee based on: Carlo Goldoni Director: Michele Modesto Casarin conception: Marco Gnaccolini Costumes: Licia Lucchese, Alessandra Dolce maschere: Roberta Bianchini

cast Manuela Massimi | Matteo Fresch | M. M. Casarin | Emanuele Fortunati

tenore | Andrea Biscontin clavicembalo | Alberto Maron soprano | Ilenia Tosatto violino | Giulia Zoppelli Cascio

La Fenice production with Pantakin Commedia, Woodstock Teatro Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello di Venezia What is Goldoni doing in his study in the middle of the night, surrounded by half empty bottles of rosolio and haphazard piles of paper, with a pistol at his head? This is the opening scene of I tre gobbi (The Three Hunchbacks), the Fenice’s first production of a play by the Venetian playwright for the opera house. Protagonists are not only the writer’s characters, but Goldoni himself, Vivaldi, Gozzi, entrepreneurs other figures from the world of theatre. One scene also includes a timeless interpretation of eighteenth-century Venice: festive, wealthy and joyful, but also sordid, poor and criminal, where they lay their stakes in both gambling houses and the theatre. It portrays a ‘rowdy’ city where the theatre companies are the undisputed protagonists of the cultural and economic system