Aladdin and the Magic Lamp

The magic of opera meets the famous tale of Aladdin. The story is part of the collection “One Thousand and One Nights” and was first written down in the French translation by the orientalist Antoine Galland (1646-1715). Through the French version, it entered the narrative culture worldwide, inspiring theater, lyrical opera, cinema, and art.

Set between China and the Maghreb, the story at the heart of Nino Rota’s “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp”, a lyrical fairy tale in 3 acts and 11 scenes, premiered at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in January 1968 with a libretto by the poet and philosopher Vinci Verginelli.

Rota, one of the most influential and prolific composers in cinema history, never stopped composing vocal, chamber, and orchestral music, along with numerous works of musical theater exploring a wide range of genres, including fairy tales with esoteric content, as in “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp”.

The third opera by the Milanese composer to be performed at the Festival (after “The Florentine Straw Hat” in 1981 and “Napoli Milionaria” in 2010), this rarely performed lyrical fairy tale is presented to the audience in Martina Franca in its full version.