NAPLES, Italy — Finally, the Oscar-winning composer sought to prove that he could breathe life into Italy's grand theaters as much as he could into dour Hollywood films.
On Friday evening the production will take place at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples Ennio Morricone the only opera “Partenope” three full decades after it was written. It is inspired by the mythical siren who drowned herself after failing to charm Ulysses, her body washing ashore and becoming a settlement that evolved over the millennia into the seaside city of Naples.
When Morricone wrote Parthenope in 1995, he was already a world-famous composer of the spaghetti western theme song “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and the haunting soundtracks of such epic films as “The Untouchables” and “Once Upon a Time in America.”
He won a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2007, but his compositions were never performed in the hallowed halls of opera houses, which in his homeland were considered the elite echelon of music. Much to his chagrin, Parthenope had been gathering dust for decades; Morricone died without ever seeing the performance.
“In the end, he took the fact that he was not making his debut in the opera world as a sign of fate,” Alessandro De Rosa, a close collaborator who co-wrote Morricone’s autobiography, said in an interview. “I am sure that if he were alive today, he would accept the challenge and dialogue with the orchestra and the director tirelessly, like a small child.”
Director Vanessa Beecroft and conductor Riccardo Frizza had to figure out their visionary work without using these notes.
“It would have been great to talk to Morricone about his musical preferences… but we had to understand them from what he left us and try to interpret them in the best possible way,” Frizza said.
For example, he decided not to use violins in this orchestra, opting instead for flutes, harps and horns, which appear in Greek mythology, Frizza explained.
“Then you have modern instruments, a lot of percussion with Neapolitan sounds provided by tambourines and putipu,” he added, referring to the friction drum used in local folk music.
On Thursday evening the Teatro San Carlo was full of anticipation as Neapolitans attended an open rehearsal. The free tickets sold out in just a few hours.
“It’s been such a long wait, that’s why we’re here today,” said middle-aged Alfonso Yeneroso as he entered the theater.
The mythical Parthenope is part Culture of NaplesTraditionally, her voice represents the enduring spirit of the city. The original Greek settlement was named after her. She is depicted on monuments such as the Fontana della Sirena, a fountain that has become one of the symbols of the city. Young children all over the Bay of Naples, living in the shadow of Vesuvius, are learning legend of Parthenope from their parents.
And, like Morricone's opera, Naples itself was downtrodden and forgotten for decades, but is now experiencing a revival: the UN has recognized it pizzerias as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity; It has been included in lists of must-see places in foreign media; Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels were recognized bestsellers it became an HBO series; and his football team in 2023 took home the country's top league trophy for the first time since Maradona played in the 1980s – then won again in May.
This year Naples also celebrates its 2500th anniversary, and Morricone's opera marks the culmination of the celebrations. The main character of his adaptation is a woman who, after the death of her husband and separation from her best friend, refuses the consolation of becoming a distant constellation. Instead, she asks the gods to allow her to spread her wings over the bay, where an immortal city will arise.
The performance explores the connection between the ancient legend and the identity of the modern city, as the two sopranos simultaneously personify Parthenope, reflecting her dual nature as body and myth.
Morricone originally wrote the one-act opera—for free—to accompany a libretto by authors Guido Barbieri and Sandro Cappelletto for a small festival in Positano, south of Naples on the Amalfi Coast. But this did not happen: the festival went bankrupt and Partenope was postponed.
There have been several attempts to revive their work, including one between 1998 and 2000 at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. But that project ultimately stalled when a director could not be found.
“In those years, Morricone suffered from the fact that he was not perceived as a composer of what he called “absolute music,” as he was identified with the scores of his popular films,” Barbieri, one of the libretto authors, said in an interview. Cappelletto said that in a conversation with two authors in 2017, three years before his death, Morricone seemed “at peace” with his music career.
Partenope has inspired several productions over the centuries, including operas by famous 18th-century composers George Frideric Handel and Antonio Vivaldi, as well as a 2024 film by Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino. Morricone's work is finally coming to life and joining their ranks.
“It was very nice to listen to the music of Morricone, the real protagonist of this opera,” said Giovanni Capuano, a 26-year-old film student, after Thursday’s rehearsal. “His spirit has returned and enchanted us.”
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Zampano reported from Rome.
