Zeffirelli: A Cinematic Timeline
Verdi, Shakespeare and other classics
Italian Journal
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Visconti’s Verdi
by Pierpaolo POLZONETTI
On November 2, 1906, Carla Erba, granddaughter of the founder of a leading Italian pharmaceutical industry, gave birth to Luchino Visconti in Milan, the city once ruled by the Visconti family. One hour before he was born – as he liked to recollect – the curtain went up at La Scala for a performance of Verdi’s Traviata.
Shared Ideals
by Federica TROISI
The celebration of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi provides the opportunity for a careful philological reading of his productions and a study of how European literary sources influenced the great composer’s artistic path. If the first task can be performed by a musician, the latter also involves the literary scholar.
Otello’s Screen Presence
by David SCHROEDER
Three decades of the operatic character on the silver screen.
From 1958 to 1986, four notable films of Verdi’s Otello appeared, with remarkably little in common. The first, made for RAI television by director Franco Enriquez in 1958, featured Mario Del Monaco; then came Walter Felsenstein’s East German version in 1969, five years later Herbert von Karajan both conducted and directed his with Jon Vickers and Mirella Freni, and Franco Zeffirelli’s appeared in 1986.
Verdi’s “Most Beautiful” Work
by Fred PLOTKIN
Talk to anyone in Busseto about Giuseppe Verdi, who was born five kilometers away in Roncole, and he or she will have a strong opinion about the composer who was also a national hero for giving Italy definition and voice in his operas and political activities. As often as not, Verdi is regarded with grudging respect locally for his indisputable achievements.
Memorably “Imperfect”
by Ludovica ROSSI PURINI
Giorgio Battistelli is an award-winning composer of classical music, opera and musical theater, performed by such greats as Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Lorin Maazel, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding, Ádám Fischer and others.
To Back(Stage) Or Not To Back(Stage)
by Gianluca Marziani
We see it, on the wall of a gallery or museum, indoors or outdoors, in or on a monitor screen, hanging, suspended or resting … to us the work of art always appears as a finished project. Ultimately, we see the end result and (almost) never behind the scenes, with executive backstage passes to witness the time between conception and design.
Backstage View
by Barbara ZORZOLI
As the lights go up, the music starts and the models stride into view. Their timing is perfect and the clothes look sensational… but the show begins behind the scenes.
Italian Fiction Into Screenplays
by Laura GIACALONE
The history of Italian literature has always been tightly intertwined with that of film. World-famous cinematic transpositions of literature masterpieces have left indelible marks on the collective imagination.
Light Upon…Ancient Faces
photography by Mauro Benedetti
The Capitoline Museum in Rome is a treasure trove of Italian antiquities, including three grand rooms dedicated solely to the preferred form of portraiture in B.C. Rome: sculptural busts.