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FESTIVALS
Summer music and opera festivals have become another casualty of the covid-19 pandemic. Planning has been extremely difficult not just because dates have been uncertain but also because the difficulties of travel have thrown schedules for international artists up in the air. However almost all festivals just can't wait to get going again, adapting as best they can to the new distancing conditions. But programmes are changing all the time so check the festival's website and the usual social media channels. Even then uncertainty remains. For example the Verona Arena festival website www. arena.it says that the 2020 programme has been moved to summer 2021, but now it is announcing a programme of special events. Check both the websites and Instagram for updates. What we do know in date order:
RAVENNA FESTIVAL 21 June-30 July, 6-15 Nov This festival is going ahead in a brave effort to put the covid-19 pandemic behind us. Riccardo Muti, who is the force behind the festival, conducts the opening concert at the Rocca Brancaleone with the 60 members of his orchestra the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and soloist Rosa Feola on 21 June with music by Scriabin and Mozart. The festival organisation is planning 40 events and the full programme will be on the festival website. All social distancing regulations will be in force, with strictly controlled access to each location. Wearing masks will be compulsory. The November opera festival from 6-15 Nov spotlights Dante Alighieri 700 years after his death in Ravenna in 1321 in Project Dante, the divine the human and the diabolical. It begins with three performances (6, 10, 13 Nov) by the controversial dancer Sergej Polunin (the man with a Vladimir Putin tattoo on his chest who was fired by the Paris Opera Ballet in 2019), followed by two operas, Mozart’s Don Giovanni (7, 11, 14 Nov) and Gounod’s Faust (8, 12, 15 Nov). www.ravennafestival.org.
TEATRO DELL’OPERA DI ROMA July The usual summer season at the Baths of Caracalla has been cancelled but the opera theatre has announced performances of Verdi’s Rigoletto conducted by Daniele Gatti and directed by Damiano Michieletto at Piazza di Siena in Villa Borghese in July. The Teatro dell’Opera is also considering a production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia and ballet by Roland Petit to the music of Pink Floyd. This has caused consternation among the Amici di Villa Borghese who fear damage to the historic park from large scale events of this nature, particularly in Piazza Siena. The last opera in the park in 1995 caused considerable damage as did the last rock concert in 2010. Since then events like this have been banned. The website of the Teatro dell’Opera www.operaroma. it isn’t always updated quickly but now the site finally has the list of its impressive digital programmes online. These are a goldmine for opera lovers and they are available on RaiPlay. Some can also be seen on YouTube for those who cannot access RaiPlay.
MACERATA OPERA FESTIVAL 17 July-9 Aug There is no news that this is not going ahead in the open-air sterisferio stadium in Macerata so cross your fingers. The theme as originally announced this year is Biancoraggio and the three programmed operas
Tosca, Don Giovanni and Il Trovatore will portray three different types of courage. Tosca is a new production by Argentinian director Valentina Carrasco, who directed Bizet’s Carmen at the Baths of Caracalla for the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma several years ago and Verdi’s Vespres Siciliennes which opened the 2019- 2020 season at the Rome opera last December. www.sferisterio.it.
INCONTRI IN TERRA DI SIENA 21 July-29 July This exclusive and very top-quality festival in and around the house and grounds of La Foce, belonging
Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago.
to the family of Iris Origo, is going ahead with seven concerts. These will be either in the grounds of La Foce itself or surrounding churches and theatres. The programme is as always unusual and the performers are at the top of their game. Usually dinner is also available, as are other events in the vicinity, but these have yet to be confirmed. www.itslafoce.org.
PUCCINI OPERA FESTIVAL July and Aug The Puccini festival at Torre del Lago near Lucca continues, with three Puccini operas as per usual. There will be six recitals of new productions of Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Gianni Schicchi, as well as various concerts and other events. Antonio Pappano conducting the S. Cecilia orchestra will perform on 28 July. The events, which include compositions by young composers inspired by Tosca, will take place at Torre del Lago as well as other places in the vicinity. The original 2020 programme will be moved to 2021. www.puccinifestival.it.
RAVELLO FESTIVAL 11 Aug Ravello Festival on the Amalfi coast is always late to announce its programme each year so this year is
no exception. But if it goes ahead the festival’s concerts and performances in Villa Rufolo perched above Amalfi are always worth the wait. The dawn concert, which is the most spectacular, popular and fashionable is supposed to be on 11 Aug. www.ravellofestival.com.
ROSSINI OPERA FESTIVAL 8-20 Aug The festival goes ahead in Pesaro with a new production of La cambiale di matrimonio (8, 11, 13, 17, 20 Aug) at the Teatro Rossini with the orchestra in the stalls and the audience in the boxes. It will be conducted by Dmitry Korchak, in his debut as the conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini. It is a co-production with Royal Opera House Muscat and will be staged there in Jan 2021. The last performance on 20 Aug will be streamed live on the website www. rossinioperafestival.it and in Pesaro’s Piazza del Popolo as per tradition. Il Viaggio a Reims will also be staged in the square as will various concerts with an impressive list of Rossini singers, Olga Peretyatko, Jessica Pratt and Juan Diego Florez among them. More details will be released on the festival’s website www.rossinioperafestival.it. Moïse e Pharaon and Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra which were on the original programme have been postponed until 2021.
FESTIVAL DEI DUE MONDI 27-30 Aug The famous Spoleto festival is usually held in July. This year the 2020 season has been cancelled but the festival’s board is considering scheduling some events over four days at the end of August. There may also be events during the weekend before 27 Aug. Tickets will be at a discount. www.festivaldispoleto.com.
MITO SETTEMBRE MUSICA 3-21 Sept Milan and Turin, two of the cities worst hit by the covid-19 pandemic, usually stage an ambitious series of concerts every September. The website mitosettembremusica.it says bravely “See you in September” but at the moment there are no details and it is showing short excerpts from its 2019 concerts to give you some idea of what to expect if these were “normal” times. www. mitosettembremusica.it.
UMBRIA JAZZ FESTIVAL This July festival in Perugia each year is entirely dedicated to jazz, but the whole of this year’s programme has been moved to 2021. www.umbriajazz.it.
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Ezio Bosso: 1971-15 May 2020
“Music chose me, I didn't choose music.” “Music is not classical, it's freedom.” “Music is silence, the silence that creates the tension between the notes.” These are just a few of the memorable ways that Ezio Bosso, who died in Bologna on 15 May, used to describe his feelings about music. Although severely disabled towards the end and with difficulty speaking Bosso was able to communicate his passion for music to everyone who came in contact with him.
Bosso had a dynamic television personality, explaining a complicated piece of classical music with great simplicity to anyone listening. There was absolutely no doubt about his passion for the subject. His whole face would light up with his infectious smile whenever he was talking or playing the piano. When he conducted he threw himself into it with astonishing force. All his concerts were sell-outs and even a quick check on YouTube shows that he attracted enormous audiences.
His compositions – “I am not a composer, I am a writer of music” was another phrase of his – sometimes had echoes of John Cage, Philip Glass or Ludovico Einaudi – but with his own intense emotions driving it forward, whether with joy or melancholy. Just looking at the titles of his works gives an idea of the feelings behind them, The 12th Room (an album which was a sell-out), The Rain in your Black Eyes, Split, postcards from far away, Following
a Bird, Bach was in another room, Six Breaths (for six cellos first played at the top of Col Margherita in the Alps) and many more. Beethoven and Bach were two of his passions, passions that he managed to hand on to all who listened to him.
Bosso's father was a tram driver, his mother worked for Fiat. He was born in Turin and started playing the piano when he was four. He began his musical career as a double bass player with a rhythm and blues band before turning to classical music. In 2011 after an operation to remove a brain tumour he started to suffer from a neurodegenerative syndrome. But his career seemed to move forward with lightening speed, with concerts – whether as conductor or pianist or both – compositions for dance, theatre, cinema and opera, symphonies, duos, trios, quartets and more. It was only in September 2019 that he had to give up playing his beloved piano.
Bosso drew people in and opened up classical music for all. Anyone who listened to him or saw him came away with a new insight into the often mysterious and sometimes elite world of classical music.
