La finta giardiniera (The Pretend Garden-Girl) by Mozart is presented in a cooperation with Opera Neo San Diego at the Hungarian State Opera. The comic opera directed by András Almási-Tóth features young American and Hungarian talents under the baton of Péter Kozma can be seen before the American premiere at the Eiffel Art Studios on 1 July 2022.
Belfiore believes his beloved Violante to be dead. Violante starts working as a gardener. Serpetta loves Don Anchise. Don Anchise loves Sandrina. Sandrina happens to be Violante in disguse. Belfiore is engaged to Arminda. Arminda is courted by Ramiro... No wonder if every character goes crazy in such a situation, and director András Almási-Tóth envisioned a true thriller on stage.
The Pretend Garden-Girl is an early opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which was premiered in Munich in 1775, when the composer was only 19 years old. Yet the work shows signs of his mature theatrical works in several ways, such as the remarkable act finales and the exciting musical depiction of the characters in the story. Indeed, some motives may be discovered in it from The Abduction from the Seraglio and The Marriage of Figaro among others. It first premiered at the Hungarian State Opera in 1987, in a production by Daisy Boschán, although its music had already been used for an adaptation of Goldoni's The Mistress of the Inn by Sándor Hevesi.
The new staging by András Almási-Tóth (visual design by Balázs Fügedi, costumes by Richárd Márton, lighting by Tamás Pillinger) places the plot into an abstract, witty, but at the same time absurd world. The cast features young American and Hungarian talents Eric Laine (Don Achine), Öznur Tülüoğlu (Violante/Sandrina), Anna Trombetta (Ramiro), Kyle White (Roberto/Nardo), Artúr Szeleczki univ. stud. (Belfiore), Andrea Brassói-Jőrös (Arminda) and Boglárka Brindás univ. stud. at the Eiffel Art Studios.
The production is staged in a collaboration with Opera Neo San Diego, whose founding artistic director Péter Kozma is also the conductor of the show. The American version is first shown in Budapest on 1 July 2022 before making its debut in the US on 5 August. The premiere of the Hungarian version takes place in June 2023 as part of the Hungarian State Opera's Myth & History season.
