Top 10 movies about opera lirica
It is always difficult to draw up rankings when it comes to great masterpieces. In this case we are dealing with cinematic masterpieces concerning operatic masterpieces. Here is a ranking of the best operatic films (many of them from the 1980s) in which the difference in quality is often minimal or non-existent; but all of […]
Willie the Operatic Whale: when Disney made a cartoon about opera
Yes, you read that correctly! A whale singing the opera. And who could have imagined something so special if not Walt Disney himself! Willie is an opera-singing sperm whale and the main protagonist of Disney’s 1946 short, The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At the Met, the finale segment of the animated feature Make Mine […]
Traviata Virtual Reality: Verdi’s opera in the metaverse
Although the world of opera is considered to be steeped in tradition, technology turns out to be a precious resource to draw on to improve the experience of both performers and spectators. Evolution of instruments and tools, advances in theater design, digital delivery, augmented reality are just some examples of how technology has made its […]
Arena di Verona: Opera Festival 2022
This year, in anticipation of the 100th edition, the Opera Festival 2022 finally return to large productions in the setting of one of the most remarkable opera house in the world, the Arena di Verona. The 99th edition of the Opera Festival is scheduled from 17 June to 4 September 2022 with a program full […]
Jacques Offenbach: the most important writer of popular music in the 19th century
Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) was arguably the most important writer of popular music in the 19th century. He created a type of light burlesque French comic opera known as the opérette, which became one of the most characteristic artistic products of the period. His many operettas are outstanding examples of the genre, while his opera Les […]
The history of the Overtures: when first impressions count
You never get a second chance to make a first impression! Thankfully this isn’t always true, but a good start definitely matters a lot. There are many operas with famous and highly appreciated overtures and some of them maintain their position in the top ten greatest overtures ever. The overture is simply an instrumental piece […]
Pietro Mascagni: the composer and the conductor
Pietro Mascagni enjoyed immense success during his lifetime, both as a composer and conductor of his own and other people’s music. He wrote fifteen operas, an operetta, several orchestral and vocal works, and also songs and piano music. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana (1890) has marked the opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo […]
Stabat Mater: Rossini’s sacred masterpiece
Performed for the first time in Paris at the Théâtre-Italien’s Salle Ventadour on 7 January 1842, the Stabat Mater is one of Rossini’s most beloved works, considered by many to be his authentic masterpiece. Poised between sacred music and opera, the composition recalls the more mature Rossini’s operatic style in vocal writing and highly refined […]
UNESCO: Italy candidate Italian opera as an intangible heritage of humanity
Last month in Rome during an online meeting chaired by Franco Bernabè, the Board of Directors of the UNESCO Italian National Commission approved an Italian application to be submitted to the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage for the 2023 cycle: “The Art of the Italian Opera Singing”. Intangible cultural heritage is […]
Le comte Ory: Rossini’s comic masterpiece
Le comte Ory is one of Gioachino Rossini’s late operas written in 1828, a comic masterpiece, a mixture of risky situation and indelicate suggestion, mediaeval chivalry and musical elegance. The French libretto was by Eugène Scribe and Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson adapted from a comedy they had first written in 1817. Six pieces of the music originates […]
