Interview: Leone Magiera – Pavarotti and me, by the man who conducted his first and last performances
Leone Magiera, the pianist and conductor, now 92, reflects on life with his dearest friend, Luciano Pavarotti.
Mirella Freni
-
-
[Interview] Soprano Benedetta Torre – La Scala’s newest Susanna
Interview with soprano Benedetta Torre on the eve of the opening night at La Scala when she will sing Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro.
-
[Interview] Luciano Pavarotti’s daughter talks about life with the King of the High Cs
Cristina Pavarotti talks about her opera-singer father before positioning his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next week,
-
La Scala remembers Teresa Berganza: 1933-2022
La Scala’s tribute to Teresa Berganza who died this morning at 89. She gave 54 performances with the theatre in operas, concerts and recitals. Plus photo album.
-
In Memoriam 2020: Singers, Dancers, Actors, Writers, Directors
A list of Singers, Dancers, Actors, Writers, Directors who have left us during 2020.
-
La Scala records the last artists for tonight’s opening gala
With Roberto Alagna, Lisette Oropesa and Plácido Domingo, La Scala has concluded its recordings for tonight’s opening gala (5pm CET)
-
Mirella Freni’s voice will open La Scala’s gala for its new season
There will not be 24, but now 25 voices in La Scala’s gala to open its 2020-2021 season A riveder le stelle (Seeing the Stars Again). On 7 December, the video introducing the evening will feature the voice of Mirella Freni singing “Io son l’umile ancella” from Adriana Lecouvreur.
-
Katia Ricciarelli at 74 returns to the opera stage and talks about being a diva
At 74, after many years away from the stage, and often from singing (the wear and tear on her voice means that even singing a popular song on TV can lead to surprising results), Katia Ricciarelli returns to opera in Cavalleria Rusticana. It was Cecilia Gasdia, now intendant of Verona‘s Arena, who convinced her. It…
-
Photo Album: Mirella Freni at La Scala
Mirella Freni sang at La Scala from 1962 until 1996 (an account of those years, with comments by Mirella Freni, is here). La Scala issued a statement, which reads: The news of Mirella Freni‘s passing has deeply moved all the workers, the musicians, and the management of the La Scala Theatre. Before the performance of…
-
Rolando Panerai dies at 95 – a career of tradition and adventure
With Rolando Panerai we lose a star of opera that we will not see the like of again, and many of his performances have shaped the history of La Scala’s opera house. La Scala left these words today, reflecting on the career of the great baritone, who died on Tuesday at 95. Maybe some of…
-
Hui He answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
When did you start singing? I always loved to sing since I was a child. I sang on every occasion, also during public events at school, where my maths teacher heard me and advised me to take singing lesson with her neighbour who was a voice teacher. He listened me, and he told me that…
-
Tenor Marcello Giordani has died at 56
Tenor Marcello Giordani died this afternoon following a heart attack – he was 56 years old. He was at his home in Augusta in the Province of Syracuse when at about 3 pm, after lunch, he felt unwell, but an hour of attempts to revive him by medical staff who arrived by ambulance and helicopter…
-
Krassimira Stoyanova’s commanding recital at La Scala
Krassimira Stoyanova opened her mouth to sing and the most extraordinarily rounded, warm, yet potent sound filled La Scala‘s auditorium. She has a rare technique which recalls the grandeur of singers of the past that most of us have heard only in recordings. Her large sound is easily brought down to pianissmo, and the contrasts…
-
Luciano Pavarotti, 10 years after his death, celebrated in exclusive photos from the La Scala archives
Luciano Pavarotti died ten years ago today, on 6 September 2007. Teatro alla Scala continually welcomed the great tenor to its stage for almost three decades, from 1965 until 1992. At the Milanese opera house he sang under the baton of Abbado, Prêtre, Kleiber, Patané, Gavazzeni, Karajan, Maazel and Muti. Pavarotti worked extensively with La Scala‘s…
-
Leontyne Price is 90 – best wishes and photographic memories from La Scala
On this day, 10 February 1927, Leontyne Price was born in Laurel, Mississipi. To celebrate her 90th birthday, La Scala joins companies, colleagues and fans the world over in wishing her a happy birthday, and has released some photos of the great soprano from its archive. Price first sang at the renowned Milanese theatre on…
-
Joyce DiDonato joins opera singers from 70 years of Desert Island Discs
As a committed fan of BBC 4’s Desert Island Discs, I am delighted that Joyce DiDonato will be revealing her list of eight recordings, a book and a luxury item that she would take if she was to be cast away on a desert island. Of course, it’s the chat between the music that is the captivating aspect…
-
Puccini’s granddaughter against Riccardo Chailly’s booed Madama Butterfly
Riccardo Chailly‘s ‘Puccini Project’ at La Scala will continue with a new production of Madama Butterfly to open the 2016-2017 Season. The opera was written for La Scala in February 1904 and was booed heavily (and whistled at, the traditional sign of disapproval in Italian theatres). It was quickly withdrawn from the theatre’s schedule after…
-
Pompea Santoro answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Dancers’ Edition
Q&A in italiano When did you start dancing? In a gym near our house when I was seven-years-old. Why did you start dancing? It was something my mother wanted me to do, and she took me to the local gym in the provinces where the teacher immediately saw my talent and advised her to take…
-
The perfect Bohème at La Scala… magisterial, stunning!
La Scala‘s La bohème has been a constant presence in the theatre’s programming after more than half a century and now edges towards its 240th performance. The 1963 production by Franco Zeffirelli is stunning in its cinematic realism and sepia tint, his use of crowds is magisterial, the comedy perfectly nuanced, and the tragedy rips through to…
-
Overwhelming applause for Gruberova and her queens at La Scala
You shouldn’t reveal a lady’s age, they say, but how can I not say that Edita Gruberova is 68 years-old when she took on the final scenes from three of Donizetti’s most demanding operas in one evening. I’m sure that somebody, somewhere, has done this before, but at La Scala with full orchestra and chorus, soloists…
-
Coin du Roi’s Serse is musically on the right track
In a climate of crises and cuts, how glorious that a Baroque formation has been created in Italy. Coin du Roi opened their first season, which consists of three titles, with Handel’s Serse in Milan. The work was last seen in the city in 1962 with a young cast consisting of Mirella Freni, Fiorenza Cossotto,…
-
La Scala pays tribute to Fiorenza Cossotto
Yesterday, La Scala celebrated Fiorenza Cossotto‘s 80th birthday with a conference in the Toscanini Foyer. Joining her were Sabino Lenoci and Giancarlo Landini from L’Opera Magazine. The idea of celebrating the ‘grandi voci’ that this theatre has witnessed started with the celebration of Mirella Freni‘s 80th birthday in February. The meeting with Cossotto kicks off…
-
Happy 80th Birthday Mirella Freni… from La Scala – in photos and video
Mirella Freni is eighty, and to celebrate her birthday La Scala threw open its doors to her fans and opera lovers to see the great soprano once again on the stage that was hers for so many years. A feisty Freni strode onstage and seemed surprised and visibly moved by the long standing ovation. She…
-
Luca Ronconi, Italian director of theatre and opera, dies at 81
Italian director Luca Ronconi died yesterday evening in the Policlinico in Milan after a short illness. His health had been poor over the last years, he was on dialysis, and was complicated by pneumonia. He was 81. His collaboration with La Scala lasted for over thirty years and today the flag outside the theatre is…
-
Italian bass Ivo Vinco dies at 86
Ivo Vinco: born Bosco Chiesanuova, Verona, 8 November 1927; died Verona, 8 June 2014 Italian bass Ivo Vinco died yesterday at the age of 86 in Verona, just thirty kilometres from where he was born, Bosco Chiesanuova, and in the city where he studied singing at the Liceo Musicale until transferring to Milan’s La Scala Academy. His…
-
Callas and Sutherland’s tenor – Renato Cioni – dies at 84
Renato Cioni, the great Tuscan tenor, died today in his home town of Portoferraio, on the island of Elba, where he was born almost 85 years ago. His career took off in the mid 1950s when he sang in a television production of Madama Butterfly with Anna Moffo, and Pinkerton was the role with which he made his début…
-
Mark S Doss answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A When did you start singing? I was in the 5th grade when the music teacher, Mrs Mapson, asked me to sing the Wells Fargo Wagon song from Music Man. She heard me sing it back to her and then exclaimed, “Wow, that’s beautiful! You could go to New York right now and make a…
-
Vittorio Grigolo talks about his voice, his art, his country… and motorbikes
Vittorio Grigolo, already saddled with the label “the new Pavarotti”, gave a long interview to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera‘s Style Magazine. He talked about his love of motorbikes, Italy and singing. Here are some excerpts: Who is he? I grew up with Happy Days and my favourite character was Fonzie; always busy…
-
awards | dance | design | music & opera
Italian theatre designer Luisa Spinatelli is honoured at La Scala
Last night in the glamorous foyer of the La Scala Theatre (Ridotto dei Palchi ‘Arturo Toscanini‘) the Amici della Scala awarded an Honorary Membership of the society to Italian theatre designer Luisa Spinatelli. She is one of several Italian designers who, outside of ‘la moda’, continue to make their mark in theatre and cinema. Spinatelli has…
End of content
End of content