Viva la mamma!

The successful comic opera Viva la mamma!, a modern and highly subversive approach to Gaetano Donizetti’s Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (1827), is presented under the direction of Sofia Paschou. Paradoxical sets, impressive costumes with endless trains, and human vanity take center stage, while the select cast of opera singers and actors delivers an unpredictable comedy of situations filled with misunderstandings, abundant humour, and sarcasm.

Viva la mamma! cleverly satirizes the endless clashes and vanities that dominate behind the scenes of a musical theatre troupe. The plot centres on the preparations for a performance, which test everyone’s nerves and relationships. A semi-amateur company attempts, against a thousand obstacles, to stage an opera production; their effort is derailed by the singers’ tantrums and rivalries, the antics of a hopeless foreign tenor, and, above all, the arrival of the overwhelming “mamma” Agata—mother of the seconda donna—who storms into rehearsals demanding revisions and new music written specifically for her daughter, until the entire production is driven to collapse.