Fantasio / Fortunio

The Italian composer Giampaolo Testoni wrote the librettos for his own one-act operas Fortunio and Fantasio, which are being paired together, based on the plays of the French Romantic dramatist Alfred de Musset.

In the royal court, the young idler Fantasio dons the costume of the deceased court jester whom the Princess had loved so much. The youth’s aim is to achieve his life’s sole objective: for someone to love him too. Fantasio unfolds in the borderlands between the worlds of the imagination and reality: sometimes it is nearly impossible to decide what is fantasy and what is actually happening. On the stage of his imaginary world, the title character himself is attempting to be something different from what he is in real life, something that is indicated not only by his disguise, but by the fact that the composer wrote his part for a female voice.

The young student Fortunio puts on a disguise in order to help his master’s wife hide the fact that she is meeting another man – and in the process of doing so, the bored title character, who has so far lived a life of apathy, himself discovers the beauty of love. The events of Fortunio fluctuate thrillingly between a dream world and reality and, as with the latter piece, are acted out by only a few singers accompanied by a small chamber orchestra. This musical comedy depicts a world of love and illusions in which the main characters don disguises, leading to a whole series of charades and misunderstanding – both humorous and spiteful – arising from the false appearances and deceptions.