Those “Uncles from America” who help us!
Such is the title of a recent article in “Corriere della Sera” about “US Associations that sustain the Italian heritage. -‘with a sense of sense of respect often much bigger than ours'”.
The article can be found herehttp://www.corriere.it/cultura/14_dicembre_05/i-tanti-zii-d-america-che-ci-aiutano-e73f08ea-7c79-11e4-813c-f943a4c58546.shtml#
It IS available in English, but unfortunately we are unable to provide the link
The American Friends of the Rossini Opera Festival is mentioned, and there is even a picture from an ROF performance!!
Let’s help make 2015 an even better year for ROF by “becoming an Uncle” and joining the American Friends of the Rossini Opera Festival!
Thank you to everyone for a successful “Armida” broadcast!
Armida was all over the US today, thanks to the WFMT network and the tireless work of producer Tony Macaluso who came to Pesaro and recorded interviews as part of the broadcast. A lot of work went into this effort and Rossini fans in the US can be grateful for his efforts. Hopefully it will be the start of an annual tradition. Please let Tony and his network know that their work is appreciated. Contact him via the wfmt.com website!
Thanks also to Maestro Zedda for taking the time during a very busy period during last summer’s Festival to speak with Tony and to enlighten listeners in his very down-to-earth, passionate fashion.
Finally thanks to Randall Bills for making himself available during the Festival. The American Friends of the Rossini Opera Festival love all Rossinians, but there is a special place in our hearts for American singers who often are more famous overseas than at home. We are trying to change that!!
Last, but not least, special thanks to Giacomo Mariotti and the people in the news office at the Rossini Opera Festival – unsung heroes of this enterprise!!
Updated list of “American Opera Series” Stations
On Saturday November 29th, the American Opera Series will present Armida from ROF2014 with intermission features recorded during the Festival.
Below are links to some of the stations that carry this program. Should a different opera be listed ( due to programming priorities) please check a different site. The opera will be carried on the parent station of this series www.wfmt.com.
http://www.kucofm.com/ Oklahoma
http://www.kvno.org/ Nebraska
http://www.kwaxradio.com/ Oregon
http://nepr.net/ New England
http://digital.vpr.net/programs/vpr-classical Vermont
http://wabe.org/ Georgia
http://www.wclv.com/ Ohio
http://www.wcny.org/radio/ New York
http://www.wdbx.org/ Illinois
www.whro.org Virginia
http://wnmufm.org/ Michigan
http://wrti.org/ Pennsylvania
http://wuol.org/ Kentucky
http://interactive.wxxi.org/classical New York
Armida broadcast on November 29th
In addition to the broadcast of the 2014 ROF Armida, there will be intermission interviews with our American star, Randall Bills, as well as the artistic director of ROF, Alberto Zedda. The schedule may be found at http://schedule.wfmt.com/?day=11/29/2014&hs=0&he=23
Breaking News – ROF US radio broadcast coming up!
The ROF2014 performances of Il Barbiere di Siviglia will be on the WDAV network’s World of Opera Series followed by Armida in mid-November. You will get another chance to hear Armida along with an intermission feature from ROF at the end of November via the WFTM network. More information as it becomes available at Forum Rossiniano on this site.
Special offer from ROF and the American Friends of ROF.
Listeners who would like an electronic copy of the program book for Armida from last summer’s Festival, are encouraged to email
info@rossiniamerica.org with the subject line “Armida” and you will receive the program.
30 years (almost) with Rossini at ROF
We are thrilled to have the following contribution from one of our members. Actually Charles Jernigan’s connection with the ROF predates the establishment of the American Friends of the Rossini Opera Festival.
Professor Jernigan has kindly offered to share his experiences and we look forward to hearing more from him on a (hopefully) continuing basis.
Enjoy!
photo from ROF achieves.
Thirty Years (almost) with Rossini at ROF.
Next year will be the thirtieth anniversary of my first time at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. My first experience with ROF came in August, 1985. I had heard of the Festival only a year or so earlier, and when my wife and I had a few days before school was to start in my new job directing the California State University’s study abroad program in Florence, we naively took the train over to Pesaro, without opera tickets or a hotel room. It was a sweltering August in a crowded beach resort, but we found a room in a cheap hotel near the train station and only a block from the Teatro Rossini, and we managed to get two tickets from partial view seats in the top row of boxes, almost directly above the stage, for that night’s opera. In the theater, everyone was sweating profusely and we had to lean over the box railing to see the whole stage; the opera was one that even a dedicated Rossinian like myself had never heard before, much less seen.
The opera was Maometto II, and that performance was one of the greatest opera-going experiences of my life. The singing from the whole cast–Samuel Ramey, Lucia Valentini-Terrani, Cecelia Gasdia, Chris Merritt, and William Matteuzzi–was beyond anything I had ever heard, and everyone acted too! Ramey, in an unforgettable stage moment, ran barefoot up a group of hunched-over ‘slaves‘ to sing his cabaletta “Duce di tanti eroi,” standing on the shoulders of a–literal–underling. And he stayed there to repeat it! It was one of the most exciting things I have ever seen or heard in the theater, and it convinced me then and there that Stendhal was right: Rossini is the greatest opera composer. Maometto revealed itself as a masterpiece, a judgement confirmed in several subsequent productions over the years.
After that, I returned to Pesaro every summer that I was able to go, as great work after great work was uncovered by the musicologists, singers and stage directors. Operas which had just been titles in a book became real and wonderful works by a composer who, in Alberto Zedda’s words, “doesn’t know how to be mediocre.” Of course there have been many great moments since then like the unexpected debut of the totally unknown Juan Diego Florez in Matilda di Shabran, for me a scarcely explored title in a book before he sang it in 1996. And there have been so many great singers over the years, from the spectacular Marilyn Horne in the early years to Joyce DiDonato’s Cenerentola to Olga Peretyatko more recently, and so many others. Anyone who loves great singing cannot afford to stay away from Pesaro!
And if the August afternoons and evenings in Pesaro are filled with great music, the little town on the Adriatic is itself a wonderful place to visit. All year long my friends and I dream of those sea bass (branzino) splayed out on a white plate dusted with breadcrumbs in the Pesaro style, accompanied by a frosty glass of bianchello del Metauro, the local white wine. And there’s the turquoise blue of the Adriatic as well. Rossini had the good sense to be born in Pesaro, and in 2014 it is good to know that the tradition of restoring and playing his music comes alive there every year.
In recent years I have taken to writing essay-reviews of opera performances, and my reviews of this year’s Pesaro performances can be found at Jernigan’s Opera Journal, www.operapronto.info/journal.html.
Behind the Scenes at ROF2014
This year’s Festival concluded with a performance of Aureliano in Palmira
with Jessica Pratt and Michael Spyres in the leading roles.
Here is a sample of what went on behind the scenes in preparation for the first-ever performance of the critical edition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTDoxQjC8X4
Something wonderful awaits at the end of ROF 2014
Usually Rossini lovers experience a “low” after the Festival concludes. It’s a long wait until the next Festival.
This year, however, there is great news!
The sparklingly delightful L’Italiana in Algeri from ROF 2013 is going to be available on DVD at the end of August!
This over-the-top production by Davide Livermore features Anna Goryachova, Alex Esposito, Yijie Shi, and Mario Cassi, among others.
Armida makes her choice between Love and Vengence
Carmen Romeu as Armida in Luca Ronconi’s production of Armida for ROF2014.
The beautiful music that accompanies this scene may be misleading.The direction makes it quite clear that Armida is having nothing of Dido’s hopeless love.
Aureliano in Palmira cast list
AURELIANO IN PALMIRA
Dramma serio per musica di Giuseppe Felice Romani
Edizione critica Fondazione Rossini/Casa Ricordi, a cura di Will Crutchfield
Direttore WILL CRUTCHFIELD
Regia MARIO MARTONE
Scene SERGIO TRAMONTI
Costumi URSULA PATZAK
Progetto luci PASQUALE MARI
Interpreti
Aureliano MICHAEL SPYRES
Zenobia JESSICA PRATT
Arsace LENA BELKINA
Publia RAFFAELLA LUPINACCI
Oraspe DEMPSEY RIVERA
Licinio SERGIO VITALE
Gran sacerdote DIMITRI PKHALADZE
CORO DEL TEATRO COMUNALE DI BOLOGNA
Maestro del Coro ANDREA FAIDUTTI
ORCHESTRA SINFONICA G. ROSSINI
Nuova produzione