La Pietra del Paragone – Interviews with Pier Luigi Pizzi and Alberto Zedda

Discover Rossini's masterpiece from the point of view of the stage director Pier Luigi Pizzi – author of an incredible production of The Touchstone, with a swimming pool on the stage of the Teatro Real Madrid in 2007 – and the point of view of Alberto Zedda, music director in the same production!

Here is how Pier Luigi Pizzi, one of the most influent and refreshing stage directors of his time, sums up the time he spent to prepare this production: "it was a very joyous moment." And we can see why: "the architecture [of the Count's house] is very similar to my house in Castel Gandolfo, he says. But also, the furniture is all original, like the Breuer chairs and many other pieces. The parasols, the lounge chairs surrounding the pool. These are things I had in Castel Gandolfo. Therefore, imagine how it was for me how nice it was to work in such a familiar, well-known environment."

Alberto Zedda, at the head of the Teatro Real Orchestra for this opera, wonders: "People say it's opera buffa, comic opera... Where is the comic in this opera?" In fact, the opera's subject really is not light: it deals with "a specific world – a very modern one where the main problem is idleness, how to kill time. These are rich people, not intellectuals, otherwise they wouldn't have this problem. Intellectuals have trouble finding time!"

• Watch La Pietra del Paragone, directed for stage by Pier Luigi Pizzi, music director: Alberto Zedda

Photography: © Javier del Real