Life and Death

Zemlinksy's 'Der König Kandaules',
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Of the twelve major Italian opera houses, Palermo's Teatro Massimo is the only one which has closed its accounts with a positive margin for the last seven years in a row. This does not mean that it provides a season solely of staple favorites like Bohème, Trovatore and Barbiere di Siviglia. In its programs there are, every year, some innovative and non-traditional titles along with the most popular offerings. For instance, in the last few years, Teatro Massimo presented Italian premieres of Entartete Musik, German operatic and instrumental music of the twenties and the thirties forbidden by the Nazis because it was considered 'degenerate' (the literal translation of Entartete)...

ALEXANDER ZEMLINSKY

PALERMO

ITALY