The consecration novel by the Italian Umberto Eco will arrive with a new version in opera format.
Almost three decades after being adapted to the cinema, the consecration novel by the Italian writer and semiotician Umberto Eco, “The name of the rose”will become an opera on impulse from La Scala in Milan, which in collaboration with other institutions announced that it will premiere this new version in its 2024-2025 season.
The new adaptation will consist of “a new opera extracted” from the story of mystery and death that takes place in 1327 in an isolated abbey in the Alps, and in which crimes related to its large library and certain “forbidden” books take place. Fray Guillermo and his pupil Adso arrive there to clarify the murders, while they are forced to mediate the dispute between the envoys of Pope John XXII from Avignon and the Franciscan order, which promulgated apostolic poverty.
image.png
Eco published his famous novel in 1980 and quickly became an unexpected phenomenon because it is an erudite, medieval history that requires several explanatory notes, in which, for example, it is stated that: “…library plus blind only Borges can give, also because debts are paid”, a reference that accounts for the fondness of the author of “Foucault’s Pendulum” for Borges’ work.
“The name of the rose”which has sold 14 million copies and was translated into more than 100 languages and made it to the cinema by the French director Jean Jacques Annaudprecisely takes its name from a poem by the Argentine writer, but also includes another tribute: the character of the blind monk, who guards the voluminous library of the abbey, is called Jorge de Burgos, another tribute to the author of “El Aleph”.
What will the opera of “The name of the rose” be like?
The version in opera format promoted by La Scala in Milan was commissioned to the composer Francesco Filidei and it will be premiered in Milan in April 2025, under the direction of the orchestra of Ingo Metzmacher and the set design by Damiano Michieletto.
The work already has protagonists: the American baritone Lucas Meachem Will be Guillermo de Baskerville, the Franciscan called to solve the crimes in the home of the friars, while his pupil Adso de Melk will have the voice of the mezzo-soprano kate lindsey.
Filidei (Pisa, 1973) is working on the Italian and French versions together with some collaborators, since the premiere will be both in Milan and Paris.
Eco himself, who died in February 2016, led the way by describing the book in his annotations as a “bufo melodrama structure with long recitatives and sweeping arias.” And he also recognized that he was inspired by the symphonies of Gustav Mahler. In this way, Filidei will provide “El nombre de la rosa” with a symphonic framework on which a succession of arias and recitatives based on Gregorian chant take place.
“The name of the rose” It takes place over seven days: in the opera the first three will make up the first act and the other four, the second, both parts presented in a “symmetrical” way and with a brief coda as a final touch.
From a dramaturgical point of view, the opera will have 15 characters, each with their own aria.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
