I Shardana

I Shardana is a 1949 opera by Sardinian composer Ennio Porrino which was premiered in 1959 at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples under Gastone Limarilli and Piero Guelfi. The libretto by the composer was inspired by Bronze Age stone towers, megalithic nuraghes, found across Sardinia.^[1]

Recording

1960: Armando La Rosa Parodi, Orchestra e Coro di Roma della RAI, Decca.
Torbeno: Gastone Limarilli Bèrbera Jonia: Marta Pender Gonnario: Ferruccio Mazzoli	Nibatta: Oralia Dominguez Norace: Piero Guelfi Orzocco: Vinicio Cocchieri

• DVD Button Marrocu, Palomba, Ledda; Signorini, Villari, Ruggeri, Balzani, Mangione; Orchestra and Chorus of Fondazione Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Bramall. Production: Livermore. Dynamic 37683, 114 mins., subtitled^[2]

References

1. The Oxford Companion to Archaeology Volume 1 Neil Asher Silberman, Alexander A. Bauer - 2012 0199735786 p227 -One theory made these Corsican statue-menhirs the work of Corsican warriors fighting against an invasion of Sardinian "Shardana" during the late second millennium BC. The Shardana are mentioned in Egyptian accounts of the reign of Rameses III as one of the Sea Peoples who invaded Egypt in the twelfth century BC. There is, however, no firm connection, despite the similarity of name, between the Shardana of Egyptian re- cords and the island of Sardinia.
2. Opera News I Shardana TEATRO LIRICO di Cagliari, where this world-premiere recording of Ennio Porrino's 1949 I Shardana was filmed, was a most appropriate venue: Porrino was born in Cagliari, the capitol of Sardinia, and his opera is an imaginative resurrection of the island's ancient culture. Taking as his inspiration the seven thousand megalithic nuraghes scattered across Sardinia, Porrino fashioned a mythic tale of the Bronze Age Nuragic people who built these mysterious stone structures,