Featured on this concert will be the 2023 winners of the SAI Competition, all from the Opera Conservatory.
I due timidi by Nino Rota
Marlena Malas, Director*
John Matsumoto Giampietro, Associate Director
Jen Pitt, Stage Director
Timothy Muffitt, Music Director

Nino Rota’s one-act romantic/comic opera I due timidi is the story of two young people who, having seen each other from across the courtyard, have fallen madly in love and are desperate to find the courage to speak to each other. When calamity befalls Raimondo, namely a window-shutter falling on his head and knocking him out, he feels the need to reveal his emotions to his beloved. What happens next is a charming, bittersweet love story about Raimondo and Mariuccia, who are too shy to speak to each other, too timid to let their feelings be known, and the grim consequences of the failure to communicate our true feelings.

The Chautauqua Opera Conservatory is an intensive educational program that seeks to offer the highest caliber of training for the young singer, 18 and older. Under the leadership of Marlena Malas, a select group of 20 singers study, coach and perform in an idyllic setting on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution.

Comprised of top-tier students from conservatories and universities in the U.S. and abroad, Music School Festival Orchestra members participate in a variety of musical activities during their summers at Chautauqua including chamber music and private lessons along with their meticulous orchestral training. Alumni from the MSFO can be heard in many of the world’s top orchestras and chamber ensembles and can be found on music faculties worldwide. The MSFO is led by Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt, who serves as Music Director of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.

*The Chautauqua Community joins the world in mourning the passing of Marlena Malas on December 4, 2023. We honor her more than four decades of leadership and service to our Opera Conservatory.

This performance is made possible in part by The Hultquist Foundation, Inc.