Maddalena is an opera commissioned by the Associazione Maddalena, whose members, after the 2003 and 2007 stagings of Mantegazzi's singspiel Sacra terra del Ticino (evocative of the roots of Ticino), and Rossini’s opera Guglielmo Tell, another Swiss story, have kept in the drawer for years the dream of completing a sort of operatic trilogy dedicated to the Swiss territory.
More about the Associazione Maddalena
After the editorial success of Carlo Silini's two novels Il ladro di ragazze and Latte e sangue, the legendary tales about the Mago di Cantone (Wizard of Cantone), a sort of founding myth of the Ticino region, have become the privileged subject for a new and courageous artistic enterprise, which aims to create an opera that represents the historical and cultural roots of Ticino.
The composition, commissioned to Thomas Trachsel, is for soloists, choir and wind orchestra, and it is developed in an epic narrative style.
The opera is titled Maddalena, and the protagonist is certainly the young girl with the same name, but it is to be considered a choral drama: next to hers, also the events of her parents Antonio and Barbara, of her acquired relatives Lena and Tonio, of the nobles, of the brigands, of the cruel Mago di Cantone himself are told: each one with their own weaknesses and frailties, which are reflected in their respective actions, whether wicked or honorable
The final message is therefore one of redemption: even for the cruel ones there is salvation, whether it is in death or in love.
The plot develops in a circular form, as it begins with Maddalena already an adult attending a procession at Easter time, to then jump back in time to even before her birth. In a certain sense, we already know that the plot will have a happy ending, however, dramatic episodes will involve the characters.
