Anna Moffo: La Diva La Donna – a new exhibition opens at Villa Lanfranchi
Twenty years after her death, Anna Moffo returns – in photographs – to the house where her Italian life was rooted.
La traviata
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books | dance | music & opera
Books: Amici della Scala celebrates Italy’s theatre designers – Luciano Damiani, Anna Anni, Gabriella Pescucci, Franca Squarciapino, Luisa Spinatelli
Amici della Scala has published an annual collection of books on La Scala’s designers for more than 20 years. The new collection features Luciano Damiani and others.
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news | dance | music & opera
Royal Opera House Stream goes live with 130 titles
The Royal Opera House has launched its new streaming service with 45 performances and 85 behind-the-scenes features.
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Soprano Angel Blue pulls out of production at “racist” Verona Arena
“Blackface is offensive and outright racist,” said soprano Angel Blue as she announced that she was pulling out of La Traviata at the Verona Arena.
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dance | music & opera | news
The Paris Opera cancels opera and ballet performances
The Paris Opera has postponed its reopening. Following new directives by the French government to contain Covid-19, it must remain closed.
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Conductor Nello Santi – who conducted 401 performances at The Met – has died at 88
The conductor Nello Santi has died at 88. He last worked at La Scala in November 2017, when he was 86, conducting Nabucco. He was born in 1931 in Adria in the Veneto region. He was the director of Zurich Opera from 1958 to 1969. In 1960, Santi conducted the Wiener Philharmoniker for Don Carlo…
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Franco Zeffirelli, at 96, on Anna Magnani and Maria Callas, his career, and old age
On 21 June Franco Zeffirelli‘s new production of La traviata opens at Verona‘s gigantic arena. He’s 96. On Anna Magnani and Maria Callas Anna Magnani and Maria Callas were two goddesses but with difficult characters. Anna wanted to see me and asked to come to dinner, as long we could be alone so that we…
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Interview: Carmen Giannattasio on her first Tosca, Lady Gaga, and homicide
Soprano Carmen Giannattasio has been in demand since she was thrust before the public eye when she won both the First Prize and the Audience Award at Placido Domingo‘s Operalia in Paris in 2002. She took on one of the most challenging soprano roles soon after, singing Violetta La Traviata. Reviewing a 2007 performance at…
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Luisa Mandelli, Maria Callas’ Annina at La Scala, has died at 95
Luisa Mandelli, Maria Callas‘ Annina at La Scala, died last night, just short of her 96th birthday. Daniel Barenboim called her the ‘eternal Annina’ having sung alongside Callas in Luchino Visconti‘s production of La traviata at La Scala under the baton of Carlo Maria Giulini. Mandelli was a constant presence in the theatre travelling on the…
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Interview with Juan Diego Flórez who debuts in Ricciardo e Zoraide at Pesaro tonight
Twenty-two years ago, Juan Diego Flórez arrived like a meteorite across the opera firmament. A couple of weeks before his career launching performance, I’d met the young tenor in Milan. He’d flown over from Peru with a work visa just for a handful of days, and was heading to Pesaro to make his Italian debut….
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La Scala, Milan: Opera and Recital Season 2018 – 2019
OPERA SEASON 2018 – 2019 La Scala announced its 2018-2019 Opera season today with 15 titles, nine of which are new productions, and two are La Scala premieres. At the heart of the season remains the Italian repertoire, continuing with the cycle of works of Verdi, Puccini, Verismo (which will return in 2020 with Giordano’s…
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Lucas Meachem answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A When did you start singing? There’s not a time I don’t remember singing in some capacity. Why did you start singing? I have a need to perform and to share my love of music with others. Which singer inspired you most when you were young? Luciano Pavarotti. Which singer do you most admire? Bryn…
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Maria Callas on Stage – a new exhibition at La Scala
Maria Callas in scena – Gli anni alla Scala (Maria Callas on Stage – the La Scala Years) runs from 15 September to 31 January at La Scala’s museum, which is housed in the same building as the theatre. The Italian theatre designer, Margherita Palli, has overseen the exhibition which contains 14 of La Divina’s…
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Angela Gheorghiu’s releases first studio recording in six years: Eternamente – The Verismo Album
The studio recording – her first in six years – explores the generation of Italian composers that followed Verdi, including three duets with tenor Joseph Calleja Eternamente – The Verismo Album, Angela Gheorghiu‘s first studio recording in six years, will be released on 20 October 2017, and will feature performances of opera and song by Italian…
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Marie Duplessis, at 23, inspired Dumas then Verdi; now 23-year-old Maria Mudryak sings La traviata
La traviata, an opera that has moved audiences to tears since its premiere in Venice in 1853, was based on a true story of prostitution, obsession and love. Marie Duplessis was born in 1824 to a humble family in Nonant-le-Pin, in north-western France. Hers is the classic rags-to-riches story, complete with a mother who died…
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Maria Mudryak answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A in italiano When did you start singing? My first performance was when I was three years old, then when I was five I started my musical training, and at six I recorded my first CD featuring twelve children’s songs. Why did you start singing? I started to sing because I heard children singing in…
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14 minutes of applause for Anna Netrebko at La Scala in La traviata [interview and photos]
Anna Netrebko has returned to La Scala to sing Violetta as she sings ‘addio’ to the role. She will sing in a Traviata once more in Paris next February, and then that’s it for the curvy Russian and the consumptive courtesan. The idea of tackling this role at La Scala was my idea, so I…
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Traviata opens tonight at La Scala… here’s a sneak peek
The staging of La traviata is the lavish Liliana Cavani production with sets by Dante Ferretti with which Verdi‘s masterpiece returned to La Scala in 1990 conducted by Riccardo Muti. It was performed as a preview performance two days ago, with the proceeds going to help Italy’s earthquake victims. Ailyn Perez will be singing tonight’s…
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music & opera | charity | news
La Scala and the artists of La traviata donate proceeds to earthquake victims
La traviata returns to La Scala in Liliana Cavani’s beautiful 1990 production with sets by three-time Oscar winner Dante Ferretti, and the sumptuous costumes of Gabriella Pescucci. As always, the run is sold out. However, the artists involved have agreed with the theatre in giving the proceeds for a special preview performance to help those…
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Maria Callas’ Annina returns to sing the same role after sixty years
Luisa Mandelli, who played Annina in Luchino Visconti‘s La traviata at La Scala in 1955, is now 93 years old. Although a small role, she is remembered for her presence in this production not only because there was Carlo Maria Giulini on the podium, but the Violetta was Maria Callas. She also sang the page in…
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Stream Opera brings popular and rare delights to your PC
If you haven’t heard of StreamOpera – and you’re interested in opera – then visit their site to enrich your Christmas hols, as it is full of exciting and unusual titles which can be streamed to your computer. The Italian opera site is run by Videoerre which has published over 2,000 videos in collaboration with Italian State Television,…
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La Scala, 7 December 2013: La Traviata
La Scala‘s new production of La Traviata left Giorgio Armani, and many others, feeling ‘perplexed’. Dmitri Tcherniakov’s designs and direction got some hearty booing from the loggionisti in the gods, as did tenor Piotr Beczala and conductor Daniele Gatti, who gamely remarked afterwards that, “This is theatre at its best, when the audience can express its opinion…
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La Traviata at La Scala – first glimpses
Today’s the day, tonight’s the night. Milan celebrates Saint Ambrose (Sant’Ambrogio) and La Scala celebrates Giuseppe Verdi with a new production of La Traviata to open its 2013-2014 season. This is no ordinary opening, with tickets costing €2,000 in the stalls, and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, together with the President of the Senate, Pietro Grasso, and President of…
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Desirée Rancatore answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
versione in italiano Q&A When did you start singing? When I was 16, with my mother! I had been learning the violin, but without much enthusiasm. Why did you start singing? I was studying violin at the Conservatoire, and choral singing was one of the courses. It was in these classes that I fell madly…
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Barbara Frittoli at La Scala: odd but nice
When the line up for a recital is a soprano, pianist and clarinetist one would assume that at a certain point all three would perform together. Not at La Scala when Barbara Frittoli gave her scheduled recital. Her luxury accompanist was to have been Daniel Barenboim, but he was forced to withdraw due to an injury. La…
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1907: Madame Tetrazzini conquerors London and her ‘rival’ Adelina Patti is there to cheer her on
In 1907 Madame Tetrazzini made a sensational début as Violetta in La Traviata at Covent Garden in London, where she was completely unknown, and from that point on she was an international operatic superstar, commanding the highest fees and selling out opera houses and concert halls wherever she performed, says Wikipedia. In her autobiography, written 14 years later, we have the whole…
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American baritone Cornell MacNeil dies at 88
The American baritone Cornell MacNeil died on July 15, he was 88. He was best known for his many Verdi roles. From 1959 to 1987, he sang 26 roles in more than 600 appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, including more than 100 performances of Rigoletto. In a 2007 interview James Levine commented: The larger and more…
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Carla Fracci gives her benediction at the re-opening of the Carlo Felice theatre in Genoa.
The great Italian ballet star Carla Fracci arrived at the opening of La Traviata at the Carlo Felice theatre in Genoa. Art and culture cannot die. We must do everything possible to help this theatre and the culture which nourishes mankind.” This Traviata marks the reopening of Genoa’s beautiful modern theatre after closures brought about…
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