'Partenope,' Ennio Morricone’s long-neglected opera, emerges to enchant Naples

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — At long last, vindication is at hand for an Oscar-winning composer who sought to prove he was just as capable of breathing life into Italy’s grand theaters as gritty Hollywood films.

On Friday night, Naples’ Teatro San Carlo will stage Ennio Morricone’s only opera, “Partenope,” three full decades after its composition. It is inspired by the mythical siren who drowned herself after failing to enchant Ulysses, her body washing ashore and becoming a settlement that grew over millennia into the seaside city of Naples.

When Morricone wrote “Partenope” in 1995, he was already the world-famous creator of the theme to the Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and haunting soundtracks for epic films such as “The Untouchables” and “Once Upon a Time in America.”