On Friday 29 November, La Scala will add an extra performance of its triple bill which opens tomorrow night, and the entire proceeds will go to aid Venice’s Teatro Fenice which finds itself flooded after water in the canals has risen more than 1.50 meters. The theatre’s season was to have opened on 24 November […]
La Fenice
Mariella Devia’s extraordinary three queens at the Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo
How extraordinary is Mariella Devia. In 2006 she gave her final performances as Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala, leaving the public astonished that she was saying goodbye to the role after witnessing the perfection of her voice at 58. The day after her 65th birthday she sang Norma for the first time — a […]
Maria José Siri answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A in italiano When did you start singing? I started as young girl… for as long as I can remember. Why did you start singing? I started by accident. I was supposed to go to my saxophone class, but I was given the wrong day and time of the lesson, and therefore I found myself […]
How much are singers, conductors and directors paid?
Italy’s Classic Voice magazine has published a list of the current maximum fees paid by the Italian opera houses, and, surprisingly – though according to many singers I know, not surprisingly – the length of time that some artists have to wait to receive their payment. €30,000 is currently the top for conductors such as Barenboim, […]
Riccardo Muti’s Ernani cancelled amid chaos at Rome Opera
After yesterday’s meeting between unions and Rome City Council at Campidoglio, a union representative said that there was “zero chance that Ernani would go ahead, either for 27 November [the opening of the opera season] or the subsequent performances”. Massive job losses are expected at Rome Opera after it was announced that the theatre would […]
Premier danseur Alessio Carbone puts on a tutu and wonders about having the body of Gisele and the voice of Bartoli
Alessio Carbone is a Premier Danseur at the Paris Opera. He comes from a family of dancers. His father, Giuseppe Carbone, was the director of the company at Milan’s La Scala and his mother, Iride Sauri, was a prima ballerina at the La Fenice theatre in Venice. His sister dances at La Scala and his […]
Giuseppe Picone answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Dancers’ Edition
Q&A When did you start dancing? I started when I was 10 years old at the Teatro San Carlo ballet school in Naples. Why did you start dancing? My elder brother Raffaele took me to the audition and I fell in love with ballet immediately. Till then I had no idea of what ballet was. […]
Gramophone Magazine’s Classical Music Awards 2011 – shortlists
Gramophone‘s shortlists are out for this year’s awards. No real surprises, but then those Gramophone people have great taste! Here’s a sample: Opera: Die Zauberflöte – René Jacobs; Akademie für Alte Musik Ermione – David Parry; LPO Verdi’s Otello – Colin Davis; LSO Solo Vocal: Richard Rodney Bennett, Songs before Sleep – Sophie Daneman; Susan Bickley; Iain Burnside Britten, Songs & Proverbs […]
Daniel Harding conducts the New Year’s Concert from Venice
The increasingly popular New Year’s Concert from the La Fenice theatre in Venice will be shown live on Italian television and relayed to many other countries around the globe. It goes in direct competition with Vienna’s concert but here in the land of opera the focus is on Rossini, Donizetti, Puccini and Verdi. Desirée Rancatore […]