VERONA – Cremona is the protagonist at the Verona Arena in the evening event dedicated to Italian operadeclared an intangible asset of humanity by UNESCO. A celebration that Cremona felt was its own, and not only because Alberto Angela cited Claudio Monteverdi as the origin of everything: the only quote reserved for the divine Claudio, the musician born in Cremona, who invented melodrama. A little little, one might think. At least the opening of Orfeo could have been given to the parterre de roi of the Veronese amphitheater. However, for the transitive property, we can well say that the city of Monteverdi can consider the UNESCO recognition as its own which complements that reserved for luthier know-how. They are convinced of it – and they say it more or less explicitly – the Cremonese on Friday evening at the Arena for the evening broadcast worldwide on RaiUnoorganized by the Ministry of Culture and the Arena di Verona Foundation with Siae, Anfols, Teatro alla Scala and Accademia di Santa Cecilia, which offered a catwalk of opera stars, but also the highest state officials in the front row.
The president of the Republic, Sergio Mattarellathe prime minister Giorgia Melonithe presidents of the House and Senate, Lorenzo Fontana And Ignazio La Russavarious ministers and ambassadors celebrated the UNESCO recognition for Italian opera singing, with the idea that the event could become itinerant, from year to year, in the symbolic places of bel canto.
In Mondovisione Rai, a large orchestra composed of 160 elements and a choir of 300 artists, coming from the Italian symphonic opera foundations, performed. The evening, hosted by Alberto Angela, Cristiana Capotondi, Luca Zingaretti was opened with Riccardo Mutiambassador of Italian excellence in the world, on the podium of the Arena amphitheater to conduct the first part of the evening and the most significant pieces for orchestra and choir of the great Italian opera.
The second part of the evening offered an anthology of the most famous pieces by Puccini, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano, performed by a world cast, such as the sopranos Eleonora Buratto, Rosa Feola, Juliana Grigoryan, Jessica Pratt, Mariangela Sicilia, the mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, the tenors Jonas Kaufmann, Renè Barbera, Juan Diego Flórez, Vittorio Grigolo, Brian Jagde, Francesco Meli, Galeano Salas, the baritones Nicola Alaimo, Luca Salsi, Ludovic Tézier, the bass Alexander Vinogradov, directed by the young maestro Francesco Ivan Ciampa.
To represent the excellence of dance Roberto Bolle And Nicoletta Manni supported by 50 dancers from the Fondazione Arena dance troupe.
It was a lyrical blockbuster in the name of Italian pride: «But let’s not forget – he said Andrea Cigni, superintendent of the Ponchielli theater, at the Arena together with Andrea Nocerino – that all this wouldn’t exist if there hadn’t been a man from Cremona, Claudio Monteverdi who invented a new genre that conquered the whole world. Cremona must be proud of its fellow citizen and must feel the UNESCO recognition as something of its own. There are not many cities that can boast this luthiery and opera tradition recognized by UNESCO.”
Michele Galli from Cremonageneral director of the Verdi theater in Pisa, with his wife Gloria Grazioli, vice-principal of the Ghisleri, commented at the end of the long evening in Verona: «A blockbuster event that the Ministry wanted to celebrate opera and bel canto. Maestro Muti spoke of the orchestra as a model of social cohesion in diversity. Evenings like these confirm how culture can be an important glue of unity, we hope that this helps the sector and can contribute to spreading the excellence of our opera”.
The people of Cremona who participated in the event in the presence of the President of the Republic
Cristina Ferrari, musical director of the Municipality of Piacenza, goes to the origins of the recognition: «The trade associations, the traditional theaters and the lyrical and symphonic foundations pushed for the path to UNESCO recognition to be started. The Ministry accepted this idea and supported it. The evening at the Arena is a party in which the Italian excellence of opera singing is shared by all Italian theatrical institutions. It is a signal for the future of young performers and those who make music. As a Cremonese, I can only rejoice at the UNESCO recognition, thinking of our Claudio Monteverdi.” Even behind the scenes there was no shortage of people from Cremona: luthiers Marco Nolli and Marianne Lenzini were at the Arena for a fine-tuning of the instruments of two masters of the orchestra: Alessandro Serra, first double bass at La Scala, Matteo Zanone, first double bass at the Arena of Verona and Francesco Sanarico first double bass at the San Carlo in Naples. And to underline the strength of a choral ensemble made up of elements of the choirs of all Italian institutions is the bass Marco Tomasoni who studied at the Monteverdi Conservatory: «When they called me as an adjunct I immediately said yes – he says -. I then realized afterwards what a great machine I found myself in, a unique emotion. I saw colleagues of all ages and with great experience being moved when we sang the Hymn conducted by Muti. For five days we tried until half past one in the morning, a similar experience will never happen to me again. And then behind the scenes I was able to meet the elite of opera and the star Roberto Bolle, who amazed me with his greatness and determination. A lesson in artistry and life.”
