If one wondered what a Three Tenors concert on steroids might look like, the hundreds of performers singing opera’s greatest hits at the Verona Arena on Friday night might offer a good answer.
Under starry skies, there were grandiose overtures, including audience hits like “William Tell Overture,” heartbreaking arias, and an oversized orchestra and choir supporting leading soloists in what was presented as a unique opportunity. lifetime concert to mark the addition last December of “the practice of opera singing in Italy” to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations cultural organization. The concert was a public recognition of the cultural impact of opera across the globe, broadcast worldwide from the ancient Roman amphitheater that attracts tens of thousands of opera lovers each summer.
“The great masterpieces of opera are our heritage and we Italians have given them to the world,” conductor Riccardo Muti said on Italy’s main national television channel a few minutes before the start of the event.
Sitting on a raised balcony facing the stage, Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were surrounded by senior officials while the audience was filled with fashionable celebrities, opera fans and dozens of ambassadors. countries where opera is loved. said Gianmarco Mazzi, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Culture.
Although much of the campaign for recognition took place under a previous center-left government, the addition to the list by the United Nations agency UNESCO was something of a coup. for the conservative Italian government, whose Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, has made sure that its mission is to exalt Italianness.
One of his projects is a museum of Italian culture, to highlight the “contribution that Italy has made to humanity”, and his appointments to the management of the most important museums have favored homemade choices where the previous government was looking international talents. His selection in April of a conductor for La Scala, Milan’s grand opera house, was accompanied by a declaration trumpeting that the new boss, Fortunato Ortombinawas Italian, “after three foreign general directors”.
However, at Friday’s concert, while Italy’s 12 opera theaters and some conservatories provided the orchestra and chorus, many of the soloists were not Italian – a sign of opera’s global appeal.
“The universality of this heritage is demonstrated by the fact that there are Russians, there are Americans, there are French, there is everything here and they all sing in Italian,” said Cecilia Gasdia , executive director of the Verona Arena Foundation and a soprano who debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1986. (She said she still sings, to herself, every morning before work.)
“Opera is our national theater, as Shakespeare is to the British,” said Roberto Abbondanza, a baritone and president of Assolirica, an association of opera professionals who played a central role in the campaign for the acknowledgement.
Stefano Trespidi, deputy artistic director of the Verona Arena Foundation, said Italian opera theaters and conservatories had never joined forces for such an event.
“All Italian opera is gathered here,” he said. “It’s the world of opera that celebrates itself and celebrates Italian opera.”
Opera theater began in Italy around 1600. Beginning in Florence and developing in Venice, it became an “extraordinarily extensive” arrangement, quickly spreading throughout Italy, Europe and the rest of the world, a declared Lorenzo Bianconi, musicologist and professor emeritus at the University. from Bologna.
Although the drama took place in theaters catering to the wealthy, the music spilled into the streets. Traveling musicians played tunes in remote village squares or on church organs after mass, and there are even accounts of gondoliers singing the latest hits for their patrons “to show they were in the know,” said Roberta Pedrotti, a music critic who wrote several books on opera. Italian is peppered with phrases of lyrical origin, she says.
Marco Tutino, an opera composer, said that he became aware of the importance of the Italian language for opera when he was commissioned to produce operas in other languages. “That was the litmus test,” he said.
Opera is “an art, a culture based on vocal technique and the Italian language, and that is why we must protect this brand of origin,” Mr. Tutino said.
The gala concert “shows a clear political will” on the part of the government to safeguard and promote opera, said Rosanna Savoia, a soprano who helped lead the recognition campaign.
It marks a change, Mr. Abbondanza said, from a previous failed attempt to secure U.N. honors for Italian opera about a decade ago. Then, the government instead focused on seeking registration for the “art of Neapolitan pizza makers.“China,” he added, “managed to record four lyrical traditions before Italy seriously asserted its own.
“UNESCO recognition is not a point of arrival but a starting point” on which to build, Maestro Muti told the audience, to loud applause.
As the night progressed, the “Bravos” came and went. Ballets gave way to short scenes from beloved operas like Rossini’s The Barber of Seville or Puccini’s La Bohème, delighting audiences. An over-the-top staging of an aria from “Tosca” included incense, exploding cannons, dozens of children as altar boys and an army of gold-robed priests. The crowd applauded. People in the rafters began to applaud the triumphant march of Verdi’s “Aida.” The opera snobs silenced them.
“If we approach the opera, we touch the depths of the soul. You are carried away by emotions. Laura Costa, who was clapping loudly and generous with cheers, said during an intermission. Ms. Costa is no stranger to opera — she works as a wedding singer — but the evening was even better than she could have imagined, she said. “It’s explosive.” The evening ended with a lively duet of La Traviata, encouraging wine drinking. Bottles of champagne burst. One speaker pointed out that Italy next wanted to include Italian cuisine on the UNESCO list.
Ms Pedrotti stressed that the first concert of the Three Tenors in 1990, starring Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras and broadcast live to millions around the world as part of Italy’s celebrations of hosting the FIFA World Cup, drew scorn from some football fans. ‘opera. But it gave the genre a huge boost in popularity.
Mr. Mazzi, the undersecretary, said he hoped Friday’s concert would also be repeated internationally, becoming “a performance of Italian opera that tours the world.”
There have been international film festivals and sporting events, he said. “Opera should be treated the same way.”
