«The seductive visuality» nella scrittura scenica di Davide Livermore

Davide Livermore is one of the most interesting and innovative opera directors on the Italian scene of the last decade. This article will consider two of his recent productions: Norma by Vincenzo Bellini (Catania, Teatro Massimo Bellini, 23 September 2021) and Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi (Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 7-29 December 2021). The two shows were chosen for the originality of the director’s proposals and above all for their exemplariness: their analysis, in fact, allows to focus on some key aspects of Livermore’s ‘stage writing’ and at the same time to address a series of crucial issues relating to the modes of transmission and reception of the operatic repertoire in the contemporary cultural landscape. In particular, Livermore’s ‘stage writing’ will be analyzed in the light of his using the latest digital technologies, of his tendency to design the visual dramaturgy on the basis of remediation in television and new media and the rooting of director’s theatrical language in the aesthetics of post-modernism.