Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Daniel Catán
Il Postino (2010)
- Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
Commissioned by the Los Angeles Opera
- 3(pic).2(obda).2+bcl.2/4.3.2+btbn.1/timp.2perc.pf.hp/str; Onstage: ssx, tpt, sous, perc, riq, acn
- 1(pic).1.2([ssx]:bcl).1/2.1.0+btbn([sous]).0/timp.perc/kbd/str - orchestration by Stefan Kozinski
- TB
- 2S, Mz, 4T, Bar, B-bar, 5T, 2Bar, 2B, 1 silent role (boy)
- 2 hr 5 min
- Libretto by the composer, based on the novel by Antonio Skármeta and the film by Michael Radford.
- Spanish
Programme Note
Cast List
MARIO RUOPPOLO: Tenor
MARIO'S FATHER: Character Tenor
PABLO NERUDA: Tenor
MATILDE NERUDA: Soprano
GIORGIO: Bass-baritone
BEATRICE: Soprano
DI COSIMO: Baritone
PRIEST: Character Tenor
DONNA ROSA: Mezzo-soprano
PABLITO (son of Mario and Beatrice): Silent
4 THUGS: 2 Tenors, 2 Baritones
5 PATRONS: 3 Tenors, 2 Basses
Chorus: TB
Synopsis
The action takes place on a small Italian island in the 1950s. Mario Ruoppolo is a gentle young man in an insular Italian fishing village where time moves slowly. Since Mario's seasickness doesn't allow him to fish, he takes the job of postman, delivering mail on a bicycle to only a single customer, the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Neruda has been exiled to Italy because of his communist views. After a while, the two become good friends.
In the meantime, Mario meets and becomes smitten with a beautiful young lady, Beatrice Russo, in the village's only cafe. Mario has no idea how to pursue the longings of his heart. With the help of Neruda, Mario is able to better communicate his love to Beatrice through the use of poetic metaphors. Soon Mario is composing poetry of his own, with hopes of not only attracting Beatrice's attention, but of winning her heart.
Mario and Beatrice are later married, and at the same time Neruda and his wife Matilde learn that they are allowed to return to Chile. Some months after Neruda's departure and subsequent lack of contact, Mario makes a nostalgic recording of island sounds for Neruda, including the heartbeat of his unborn son. Several years later, Neruda comes back to the island and finds Beatrice and her son in the same old cafe. She tells him that Mario was killed just before the birth of their son, at a communist rally in Naples. He was selected to read his poetry (dedicated to Neruda) for the crowd, but police stormed the rally before he could reach the stage. Beatrice gives Neruda a letter that Mario left for him.
Media
Scores
Reviews
...very much an unapologetically melodic piece. What works about Il Postino is the way these breezy melodies never sound retrograde - the swelling strings and twittering woodwinds match the romantic temperament of the setting and the characters. ...a highly singable and enjoyable show.
Of course, Los Angeles Opera had one big advantage as it presented the work’s world premiere on Sept. 23 -- the services of its General Director Plácido Domingo in the lead role of the revered Chilean poet/activist Pablo Neruda. But get this: when curtain call time arrived in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the loudest cheers from the season’s opening-night-gala crowd went to the composer.
The composer from Mexico who lives and teaches in Southern California and who wrote his own libretto, follows the 1994 film closely if not slavishly. Unlike the novel, which takes place in Chile in the early ‘70s at the end of Neruda’s life, the movie moves the story to a fictitious Italian island 20 years earlier, during the Chilean poet’s exile. Catán, however, restores a small taste of the politics, sex and Skármeta’s wonderful dry humor, as well as Neruda’s poetry, that the banal film left out.
