Verdi, Messa da Requiem

Celebrated conductor Lorin Maazel, a young orchestra of outstanding musicians, four high-caliber soloists and one of the great choral works of musical literature – this alone would make this live recording of Verdi’s Requiem a stand-out document of filmed music. But there is more: the venue of this grandiose performance, the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, with its shimmering golden Byzantine mosaics framed by mighty pillars and arches. Modeled on Constantine the Great’s Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, the 11th-century basilica has been the workplace of many a great musician in the past, such as Claudio Monteverdi, Adrian Willaert and Giovanni Gabrieli. Lorin Maazel, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, is also the Music Director of the Symphonica Toscanini, a young orchestra founded in May 2006 that has performed under Zubin Mehta, Georges Prêtre and Kurt Masur. ‘In recent tours of Europe and the U.S., the musicians expressed their unique musical potential by playing so harmoniously and compellingly as a group that they conquered every audience,’ said Maazel.

Tutto Verdi – Luisa Miller

The story of the star-crossed lovers Luisa and Rodolfo fully occupies center stage in this production from the 2007 Festival Verdi in Parma, with a minimalist decor highlighted by a simple wooden table for the heroine’s home, and an elegant sofa for the home of the noble Walter family. Franco-Italian director Denis Krief pares down the production to focus on the music and, above all, the outstanding singers. Fiorenza Cedolins heads the roster of great Verdi artists in this production.

I Lombardi alla prima crociata

The production from the Teatro di San Carlo of Naples is dominated by the formidable voices of Ruggero Raimondi as Pagano, a Muslim who helps the Crusaders, and Dimitra Theodossiou as Giselda, the Christian maiden captured by the Sultan of Antioch, and who falls in love with his son Oronte. Raimondi, an internationally celebrated bass-baritone even before his immortal turn as Don Giovanni in Joseph Losey’s 1979 film, imbues his voice with a rich melancholy that humanizes his ambiguous role. The young Greek-German soprano Theodossiou has been hailed as one of the most exciting new Verdi and bel canto voices ever since her success in Verdi’s ‘Attila’ in Bologna and Parma in 1999.

Aida

From the ancient Teatro Greco in Taormina, the ‘pearl of the Ionian Sea’, comes this visually and vocally impressive open-air production of Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘Aida’. Evoking a’Spielberg film’ (Quotidiano.net), stage and video director Enrico Castiglione projects video images upon the columns and ruins of the 3rd-century B.C. amphitheater, creating a breathtaking virtual backdrop of Egyptian pillars and palms that opens onto the ‘Nile’, in this case, the Ionian Sea.

Attila

Stage director Jérôme Savary, known for his colorfully imaginative productions, staged Giuseppe Verdi’s early opera “Attila” at Milan’s La Scala in 1991. Riccardo Muti led the chorus and orchestra of the celebrated opera house, and the cast included such illustrious names as Cheryl Studer and Samuel Ramey. Giuseppe Verdi wrote altogether five operas for the renowned Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The successful collaboration documents Verdi’s ascent to the pinnacle of Italy’s opera composers in the second half of the 19th century. It began in 1844 with “Ernani” and continued two years later with “Attila.” There followed “Rigoletto” (1851), “La Traviata” (1853) and “Simone Boccanegra” (first version, 1857). The literary source of the opera is the stage play “Attila, King of the Huns” by the German dramatist Zacharias Werner. However, Verdi and his librettists were less interested in the play than in the political message: the struggle for liberation of an oppressed nation from its occupiers. As in “Nabucco” and “I Lombardi,” “Attila,” too, was intended as a signal of support for the unification of Italy (“Risorgimento”) and was enthusiastically understood as such by Italian patriots. The Roman general Ezio offers the entire world to the King of the Huns if he is allowed to keep Italy; Attila refuses and is ultimately killed by a female freedom fighter brandishing his own sword. In the following years “Attila” disappeared from the repertoires of the opera houses; Verdi’s global successes such as “Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore” and “La Traviata” seemed more important to international operas houses. Only since the 1950s has the work been staged now and again – as an insider’s tip for connoisseurs, who admire the logically constructed action and, above all, the impressive music for four top singers and large chorus. In the score of Attila” one finds enchanting lyrical moments as well as rousing, highly effective passages. The aristocrat of conductors, the autocrat of the baton, Riccardo Muti cuts a noble figure at the head of any orchestra, and ennobles every ensemble through his charismatic personality and red-blooded musicality. In many respects, including his unwillingness to compromise over artistic matters, he is reminiscent of Arturo Toscanini, who was also a demanding ruler at the podium. His rise to international fame set in with his guest conductorships at the Salzburg Festival in 1971 and at the head of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1972. Muti became principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra a few years later, and was named its music director in 1980. Always a conductor of both the symphonic and operatic repertoire, Muti advanced to the post of music director of La Scala in Milan in 1986. The 1990s saw Muti consolidating his reputation at the head of this venerable institution, as well as in countless other high-caliber venues around the world. Today he is one of the undisputed giants among the leading conductors of the world.

I due foscari

Giuseppe Verdi was just 31 years old when his sixth opera “I due Foscari” was given its world premiere in Rome. He was then still at the beginning of his career, which later led to his fame as Italy’s leading opera composer, and he wrote his stage works at a brisk pace: in March 1844 “Ernani” was premiered in Venice, in November came the “Due Foscari” in Rome. “Verdi is now the man of the day in the musical world,” write Heinrich Heine after the world premiere. The literary source of the opera is a drama from the history of Venice by the English poet Lord Byron (1788-1824), whose works inspired many musicians, above all in the 19th century. His “Two Foscari” is not particularly effective on the stage, but Verdi took precisely this lack of theatricalness as an occasion to bring to the stage the interpersonal conflicts through a psychological characterization of the singers. He wrote enchantingly impressive music for this opera, which never ranked among the great successes of the master; from the very beginning, it vegetated on the outskirts of the repertoire as a special insider tip among connoisseurs. “I due Foscari” was recorded in 1988 at Milan’s La Scala with Renato Bruson, Alberto Cupido and Linda Roard-Strummer in the lead roles; stage director was Pier Luigi Pizzi, the musical direction was in the hands of Gianandrea Gavazzeni, who was an outstanding personality in Italian music life of the20th century as conductor and music author.