Q&A in italiano When did you start singing? On the staircase of my apartment building, there was an echo that added force to my voice; I listened to it as though it were my voice. It was perhaps a way to conquer my shyness. Why did you start singing? One of my classmates invited me […]
Rossini Opera Festival
The great basso buffo, Enzo Dara, dies at 78
Enzo Dara, who would have been 79 in October, has died in Mantua, his home town. The exemplary Italian basso buffo died at 6pm yesterday afternoon in the town where he was born on 13 October 1938. He was known for his great stage personality, his mastery of comic acting and timing, and extraordinary dexterity in his […]
Great musicologist Philip Gossett remembered by his colleagues and friends
Philip Gossett called himself “a fan, a musician and a scholar,” in that order. The great music scholar, who died yesterday in Chicago at the age of 75, saw himself first and foremost as a fan. It was his love and passion for opera, especially Italian opera of the 19th century, which led him to […]
Teatro Comunale di Bologna pulls its orchestra and chorus from Rossini Opera Festival
Rossini Opera Festival The Rossini Opera Festival and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna have announced their separation after 30 years. Starting with a Petite Messe Solennelle in 1987, Bologna has provided the orchestra and chorus for the main productions each year, resulting in almost 50 video and audio recordings of some of the most important […]
Nicola Alaimo answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A in italiano When did you start singing? I started singing when I was very young, but seriously in 1996, together with literature and music. I was a 17-year-old full of hopes and dreams that were securely locked away in my heart. Dreams that were not just centred on singing, obviously, and now, at 37, […]
Chris Merritt’s brave plea for help
Chris Merritt has written a heartfelt plea for financial aid on gofundme.com – he is asking fans and friends to help kick-start his career. Dear Ones, near and far…..I am turning to this entrepreneurial undertaking as a way to finance my career back into functionality. Due to very unfortunate managerial problems, my career has experienced a terrible […]
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 […]
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, […]
Juan Diego Flórez on his future, his family, his colleagues, and the economic crisis
To coincide with his Pesaro appearances this year, Juan Diego Flórez talked with Italy’s Il Corriere della Sera. It was at Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival in 1996 that the young Peruvian suddenly burst on to the world stage when he stepped in to take the leading tenor role in Matilde di Shabran after Bruce Ford became indisposed. […]
Juan Diego Florez talks about his fairy-tale wedding, his fans, and being lazy
On the eve of Juan Diego Florez’s Albert Hall concert, The Sunday Times sent a journalist to his home in Pesaro. This beautiful town on Italy’s east coast – home to the Rossini Opera Festival, and where Pavarotti had his much-filmed villa – is where Florez has made his base with his wife and baby although, inevitably, […]
