Bartoli, Grigolo, Damrau et al will sing live from their homes tonight
The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino has announced an at-home concert featuring some of the world’s greatest opera stars.
A concert on 1 May at 9 pm (21.00 CEST – 15.00 EDT – 20.00 BST), organised by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino’s new intendant Alexander Pereira, will feature Cecilia Bartoli, Vittorio Grigolo, Mikhail Petrenko, Diana Damrau, Ludovic Tézier, Francesco Meli, Lisette Oropesa, Luca Salsi, Thomas Hampson, Krassimira Stoyanova, Michele Pertusi, Eva Mei, Leo Nucci, Sonya Yoncheva, Fabio Sartori, and Saioa Hernández, among others yet to be announced.
Pereira will host the evening from the stage of the Maggio Musicale in Florence and each artist will perform live from their living rooms.
In a statement Pereira said,
We wanted to bring some life to the theatre and therefore we asked these artists to offer the audience a streamed concert. All the singers will be live and I will be hosting. There will be improvisation and jokes but with a positive spirit.
The concert will be the first of many with others planned dedicated to Verdi, Puccini, and Mozart. Many of the same artists will perform in the next concerts as well others.
The Maggio Musicale Concert will be available on the company’s website, Instagram and Facebook.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
