And their premiere dates Oberto November 17, 1839 Un giorno di regno September 5,1840 Nabucco March 9, 1842 I Lombardi alla prima crociata February 11, 1843 Ernani March 9, 1844 I due Foscari November 3, 1844 Giovanna d’Arco February 15, 1845 Alzira August 12, 1845 Attila March 17, 1846 Macbeth March 14, 1847 I masnadieri […]
by Marcia J. CITRON
Franco Zeffirelli has built his career on opera and on film. In the early part of his life he assisted famed director Luchino Visconti and learned a great deal about stagecraft and cinema.
Verdi, Shakespeare and other classics
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.