Giustino

Opera by Georg Friedrich Handel

Co-production with the Handel Festival of Halle, the Associazione Grupporiani Milano, Comune di Milano – Cultura Teatro Convenzionato and the lautten compagney BERLIN

Libretto: unknown, after Niccolo Beregan/Piandro Pariati, 1724
World premiere: 16. February 1737, Convent Garden Theatre, London
(Cast from the performance in Osterode on 31. May 2020)

The opera Giustino describes the ascent of a farmer to emperor. Based on an episode from Byzantian history, the story tells of the adventures of Giustino, a boy from the country who acts bravely to win the crown and the heart of the emperor’s sister, Leocasta. The opera, composed for the 1736/37 London Opera season at Convent Garden, features many spectacular effects – including onstage battles against
a bear and a sea monster.

Handel’s score dazzles with its lightness, tempi and charm. In typical Handel fashion, the opera includes a great variety of arias, each distinguished by a fresh quality and fitting characterization. Horns, trumpets and especially oboes play important obbligato and solo passages, making for a colorful orchestration. This opera is rich in delightful instrumental and vocal melodies, and enchants with its
whimsical storytelling.

Early music and traditional artisanry; the magic of the stage joined with that of puppets: the secret behind this production of Handel’s operatic jewel Giustino is the collaboration between the lautten compagney BERLIN and the puppet ensemble Carlo Colla e Figli.

This Milan-based company has made their puppets dance for over 200 years. They are no common marionettes, but rather fairytale beings whose life hangs from a silk thread. Once upon a time, the marionettes of Carlo Colla e Figli brought culture to the countryside that was otherwise only available in the cities. They performed the great operas of Verdi that were being staged on the famous La Scala in
miniature form – thus earning the nickname the Scala Puppets.

The lautten compagney BERLIN’s idea of realizing Handel’s Giustino together with the Italian marionette theater was conceived upon the overwhelming success of their first collaboration, Handel’s Rinaldo in 2014. Audiences and critics alike praised the craftsmanship of the marionette performances. Manipulating the puppets from up to five bridges spanning the stage at different depths, the set-up of
Carlo Colla e Figli is modeled after the wings and staggered scenery on a baroque stage. Due to their size and nature, the puppets can believably portray sea battles, fire breathing dragons and rising hosts to captivated viewers. They can also capture the emotion of baroque stage gestures more convincingly than live singers. Although viewing habits of the public have changed radically in the last 300 years,
these marionettes effortlessly traverse the gap.