Prato, 28 February 2026 – 12 January, 26 years ago. The Metastasio curtain opens up The comic opera of Maundy Thursdaya comedy for music in three acts and four scenes by RobertoDeSimonethegreatNeapolitandirectorandmusicianwhopassedawayayearagoItisthenationaldebutofashowstagedforthefirsttimeattheMet in 1980, with historical interpreters such as Concetta and Beppe Barra. It returns to Prato to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, with a new staging and another cast: the main role is of a young singer and actor making his debut on an important stage. Is called Da Vinci Hall, winner of the Sanremo Festival 2026. His interpretation deserves applause, noted the Prato Nation in those days. A story to remember.
The poster of the show
The orchestra and the stage at Metastasio
At the Metastasio there is the orchestra directed by Domenico Virgili, there are the actors Virgilio Villani, Patrizia Spinosi, Raffaello Converso, Gianni De Feo, Giulio Liguori, Luigi Biancardi, Luigi Del Giudice and, as the poster says, there is extraordinary participation by Sal Da Vinci. De Simone’s piece is inspired by the opera funny eighteenth centurya genre that developed especially in Naples with authors such as Pergolesi, Paisiello and Cimarosa to contrast the opera he would be of Metastasio, to whom our theater is dedicated. Real, concrete characters move on stage, protagonists of events much closer to people’s daily lives.
Sal Da Vinci plays the lead role
A people’s theatre, set in the Bourbon capital Naples, with all its conflict dynamics and its problems, imagined by the author on the threshold of the failed revolution that led to the Neapolitan Republic, which lasted a few months in 1799. Da Vinci’s meeting with De Simone, decisive for his career and his artistic training, took place in 1999, exactly two centuries later. The director entrusts him the protagonist part for the revival of his Opera buffa, again in Prato. After the premiere at the Met, the show was repeated in the most prestigious theaters in Italy with a tour that lasted more than two years. An ancient and contemporary melodrama at the same time, cultured and popular at the same time. For Sal Da Vinci, a fundamental baptism on the scene.
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