Gozo’s Gaulitanus Choir participated in Puccini’s opera Manon Lescaut, at the Teatro Antico in Taormina, on July 30.

This followed from the choir’s recent concert tour in Rome, Italy, in June, where the choir presented a concert as part of the Festival Euro Mediterraneo, animated masses in St Peter’s basilica and the archbasilica of St John Lateran, as well as partially participated in the ‘IV International Meeting of Choirs in the Vatican’.

The production in the open-air Sicilian stage was envisaged by Enrico Castiglione and enfolded with the Etna fuming very gently in the background.

The opera featured world-renowned soprano Martina Serafin in the title role, flanked by top tenor Kristian Benedikt as her lover, De Grieux, with the Taormina Festival Orchestra directed by Dejan Savic accompanying. The production was also filmed for RAI 5.

The production marks the choir’s 24th foray abroad.

Coincidentally, Manon Lescaut had been brought back to the Maltese stage in 2019 after a very long absence as part of the choir-organised Gaulitana: A Festival of Music – indeed, the festival’s last live operatic production before the pandemic. On the other hand, the opera was being presented at Taormina for the first time.

This foreign foray, the choir’s 24th abroad, was another in a string of commitments abroad ensuing from Gaulitana: A Festival of Music’s international collaborations and followed an invitation from the Fondazione Festival Belliniano and its artistic director, Enrico Castiglione, who for several years has been responsible for the production, scenery and costumes for the Gaulitana’s annual operatic production.

Led by its founder and musical director as well as Gaulitana: A Festival of Music’s artistic director, Colin Attard, this was the Gaulitanus Choir’s second appearance at Taormina, after its highly successful participation in La Boheme in 2017 – when it made history by becoming the first Malta-based choir to participate in an operatic production abroad.