Light and shadow in Weimar
My recent visit to Weimar was ‘between the years’, as the Germans would say (meaning in the week between Christmas and New Year’s), so the square in front of the Read More …
Tag: Verdi
Views of Teatro alla Scala
When I took this photo on a sunny spring morning I was trying to get La Scala from the same angle as in a famous painting by Angelo Inganni from Read More …
Seating in the galleries at La Scala
The two upper tiers at La Scala are known as the galleries. For my second evening at La Scala I paid € 24.00 for a ticket in the last row Read More …
Ricordi and the Fantastic Five
The one thing I really messed up on my visit to Milan in 2008 was that I didn’t see the exhibition Ricordi e i Fantastici 5 — and why not? Read More …
Prima delle Prime
A few days before each premiere La Scala presents an introductory talk, in Italian, about the upcoming production. These talks are held in the “Arturo Toscanini” foyer at 6 pm. Read More …
Conservatorio G. Verdi
Since Giuseppe Verdi once applied to be a student at the Milan Conservatory and was not admitted, it might seem ironic that the Conservatory is now named after him. But Read More …
Verdi in Milan
The composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was born and raised about a hundred kilometers southeast of Milan near the town of Busseto, in the province of Parma, but Milan was an Read More …
Verdi’s Don Carlo in Geneva
One of William Shakespeare’s biggest fans in the 19th century was the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), who based three of his operas on Shakespeare plays, namely Macbeth, Otello Read More …
Love in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 1559
My favorite thing about Fontainebleau is the music it inspired at the beginning of the five-act versions of the opera Don Carlos (in French) or Don Carlo (in Italian), by Read More …
Operas in the Arena
On my visit to Verona in August 2006 I saw three open-air opera performances in the Arena: Verdi’s Aida, Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. What they had in common Read More …