Donizetti: Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (Viva la Mamma!)

A provincial opera company is rehearsing a new opera; what could go wrong? A lot, as it turns out in Donizetti's early comedy, whose title – "the conventions and inconveniences of the stage" – is only the most obvious sign of a composer enthusiastically making fun of his own professional world. This 2017 production from the Opéra National de Lyon is directed by one of the paragons of operatic silliness in our own time, Laurent Pelly, who revels in Donizetti's behind-the-scenes operatic farce. Lorenzo Viotti conducts a cast led by acclaimed coloratura soprano Patrizia Ciofi as the company's prima donna, young Italian-Swiss soprano Clara Meloni as the disgruntled seconda donna and esteemed bass-baritone Laurent Naouri as her fearsome mother.