Aqua Tofana
Chamber opera · work-in-progress presentation · 2024
Libretto: Fabrizio Funari
Music: Gaia Aloisi
Production: Operative Productions
Direction: Rosie Kat
Producer: Ted Blackburn
London presentation: 22 September 2024 · The Cockpit, London, United Kingdom
Festival: Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival
Synopsis
Set in seventeenth-century Rome, Aqua Tofana follows the legendary figure of Giulia Tofana, an apothecary whose name became associated with a colourless and odourless poison said to have circulated among women seeking escape from unwanted or abusive marriages.
Drawing on the conflicting histories, rumours and legends surrounding Tofana, the libretto moves between documented reality and myth. Rather than presenting her simply as either heroine or criminal, the work examines the unstable boundary between survival and violence, individual agency and collective responsibility, asking what happens when people denied legitimate forms of power begin to create their own.
About the Work
Aqua Tofana was presented in London by Operative Productions as part of Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival. The 35-minute work-in-progress staging took place at The Cockpit on 22 September 2024, with the music by Gaia Aloisi, directed by Rosie Kat and produced by Ted Blackburn.
The London cast featured Sarah Parkin, Alexandra Dinwiddie and Thomas Litchev. Conceived as a contemporary re-examination of the historical and legendary material surrounding Giulia Tofana, the project combined seventeenth-century imagery with electronic music and a theatrical language interested in the tension between historical fact and cultural mythology.
The 2024 Aqua Tofana project is distinct from Tofàna, Una storia sbagliata, the later full-length opera developed by Fabrizio Funari in 2026 with an original score by Gilberto Bartoloni.