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An Icy Reception
GIUSEPPE PENNISI describes
the 2010 Parma Verdi Festival's
stormy beginning
Gianandrea Gavazzeni used to say that there is no need for a 'Verdi Festival' because a 'Verdi Festival' is held almost every day in more than one of world's five continents. As a matter of fact, Parma, the capital of the province where Giuseppe Verdi was born in 1813, has been organizing a top-notch festival for several decades. It used to take place in early June -- that is, strategically after the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and before the many summer opera festivals (forty in 2010) flooding Italy from late-June until mid-September.
Since 2005, Mauro Meli has been Superintendent of Parma's Teatro Regio and also of the Verdi Festival, and he invited Yuri Temirkanov to be both organizations' musical director. In 2006 a program was undertaken to make Parma 'the European music capital' by commissioning a new auditorium (for symphony and chamber music) and using the many precious small theatres in the surrounding towns and even villages...
Copyright © 16 October 2010
Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
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