Press Digest
Verdi Festival Serata di Gala, Parma, 11 March 2001
By Jean Peccei
The Gala has been termed "the premier event" of the Verdi Festival, with the participation of what the Italian press has called "the 'all-stars' of the operatic world": Placido Domingo, Josè Carreras, Marcelo Alvarez, Josè Cura, Daniela Dessì, Mariella Devia, Luciana D'Intino, Barbara Frittoli, Leo Nucci, Ruggero Raimondi and Gloria Scalchi. The orchestra is from the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with Zubin Metha conducting. The direction is by Giancarlo Del Monaco.
The concert was held in the PalaCassa di Parma. The auditorium seats 3500 people, and the tickets sold out long ago with 2000 of the spectators coming from outside Italy. It would be televised to 87 countries, either live or in delayed broadcast (compared to 'only' 40 for Vienna New Year Concert). Spanish Television Via Digital, would do the direct live broadcast, while the RAI would do the delayed broadcasts which will include additional filmed material. The event will be broadcast on Italian television RAI 2 on the 24th of March. In addition, Online Classics would webcast the concert live at 7pm GMT 11 March 2001. (The concert is also be available on the site for delayed viewing)
In an article in the Gazzetta di Parma 3/10/01 entitled 'PalaCassa tempio della lirica' ('PalaCassa a temple for opera'), Elena Formica described the intense preparations for the Gala. This being an 'unrepeatable event', the audience must be seated by 7:45 when the doors will close. To make sure they all arrive on time, the organizers have provided 3500 parking places one for each spectator. The broadcast and preparations for the performance involve...
- a 100,000 watt electrical plant
- 4 giant TV screens
- 6 'super powerful' video projectors
- 300 TV cameras
- 72 microphones
- 5 kilometers of electrical cable
- 10,000 square meters of carpeting
- a stage 45 meters wide and 23 meters deep
At a press conference the previous day the General Secretary of the Verdi Festival Foundation, Gianfranco Carra praised the role played by the producer of the "mega-event", Mario Dradi, who also produced the first 3 Tenors concert at Caracalla Rome in 1990. "It has taken over a year of organization on his part to ensure a perfect outcome, following the artists as they traveled around, establishing their availability and their preferences for the program, discussing with them new possibilities as they arose"
The PalaCassa - renamed "el Palacio de Parma" by the Spanish television staff - presents enormous logistical challenges. It is not an opera house, and is normally used for popular entertainments, trade shows and conventions. The giant space (the size of a football field - 50 by 108 meters) had to be set up for the Gala immediately after the end of a big flower show and dismantled before the beginning of the annual convention of the Federation of Italian Industry.
In an article in the Gazzetta di Parma 8/3/01 entitled 'Grandi manovre al PalaCassa' ('Big maneuvers at the PalaCassa'), Giovanni Ferraguti pointed out that for the first time in Parma, operatic music will take place in an unusual 'container', without the frescoes and gilded friezes of the city's famous Teatro Regio opera house. However, with respect to the voices and the music, the Director of the PalaCassa complex, Tommaso Altieri said "People have not yet realized the functionality and potential of the PalaCassa as an opera theater. Not only can the space accommodate more people than the Teatro Regio, the audience will have a perfect listening experience from the first row to the very last one They will also be able to see the artists close up even from the back of the auditorium thanks to four giant television screens." The concert's chief sound engineer, Daniele Tramontani said, "For this centenary concert, we will be using for the first time in Italy, a series of special speakers and glass-resin parabolic screens that will provide a perfect acoustic in every part of the theater. Moreover, we will have computerized control that allows us to correct the acoustics in real time."
Parma is one of the gastronomic capitals of Italy and the preparations for the gala dinner after the concert are taking on epic proportions. In an article in the Gazzetta di Parma, 10/3/01 entitled 'Una nota di sapore' ('A tasty note'), Francesca Strozzi wrote that in addition to the dinner, all the guests in Parma's hotels who will be participating in or attending the concert will be receiving a wedge of Parmigiano cheese - 1000 pieces in all, totaling 600 kilos. This of course, includes Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Ruggiero Raimondi who are staying the Starhotel du Parc. Pino Agnetti of the Verdi Festival Foundation was quoted as saying "For one evening, the best of Parma from the gastronomic point of view will be combined with the best of the world's artists [...] Jose Carreras agreed to participate in the concert on condition that every year from now on he receives from us a wedge of Parmigiano cheese!"
In an article in the Corriere of 11 March 2001 entitled 'Mehta: «Con le star della lirica un viaggio nella vita di Verdi»', Valerio Cappelli reporting on a pre-Gala press conference wrote that the Gala will be re-broadcast in Italy on RAI 2 although cut to an hour and a half (presumably to eliminate the applause and intervals). It will also be released on DVD and video, but not on CD. The artistic director of the Verdi Fesitival, Bruno Cagli, noted that "TV doesn't really support whole operas." And later in the article Cappelli added: "The idea of a gala with opera stars weaving together one aria after the next right up to the final high note of the evening is something which has always divided the opera world. Those who like galas applaud their festive character and the return of a popular dimension to opera. Those who don't, think of them as a kind of hedonism that fractures, pulverizes and extracts interrupting the mystical emotion of an opera presented in its entirety. They think of them as carnivals, or circus acts."
There were also quotes from some of the key participants in the Gala. This would be the first time ever that Domingo was to sing in Parma, and he noted that for the Gala "There will be an international audience, not the dangerous public of the Regio di Parma. We are all happy to participate. I would have liked to sing in a whole opera, but this is my first contact with the city. With Mehta, Carreras and Raimondi, we are the 'old guard'. But as the years pass one becomes younger because youth accumulates." This is very similar to Domingo's remarks at his 60th Birthday Gala at the Met ""I'm not afraid to be 60. When the years pass, you really are younger. ... You have accumulated youth! I feel young in my soul and spirit."
Clockwise starting from top left hand corner: Giancarlo Del Monaco (Director), Gloria Scalchi, Jose Carreras, Daniela Dessi, Luciana D'Intino, Barbara Frittoli, Placido Domingo, Marcelo Alvarez, Leo Nucci, Jose Cura, Ruggero Raimondi, Zubin Mehta (Conductor)
When asked if he and Domingo would feel like orphans without Pavarotti (who would not be participating in the Gala), Carreras responded: "We miss Luciano and it's a pity that he can't be here, but we're not orphans. The cast is extraordinary. And from Leo Nucci: "If we look around at all the theatre billboards. 80 per cent of them are devoted to Verdi. It's a continuing challenge, and a challenge of love"
The Gala program had originally included a scene from Ernani with Domingo, but this was dropped from the final program and Domingo's scene from Act IV of Otello was expanded to include almost the entire act. Cappelli pointed out that Otello is not as performed all that often because of the current dearth of 'heroic tenor' voices that the title role requires, Otello was also one of the signature roles of the great Italian tenor, Mario Del Monaco, whose son Giancarlo Del Monaco is a well-known opera director and is the director of the Gala. He has worked mostly outside Italy because according to Giancarlo the Italian opera world "is crippled by prejudices" and one Del Monaco seemed to be enough. When asked what the director of a Gala does, he replied: " It's not a very complicated job, it involves conveying an atmosphere"
According to Alfredo Gasponi writing in Il Messaggero on the day before the Gala in an article entitled 'Parata di stelle per Verdi superstar' ('Parade of stars for the super-star Verdi') , this atmosphere would be conveyed by alternating the opera scenes with readings by the singers on Verdi's life and works and their rapport with the Maestro's music. There would also be images displayed on the giant TV screens showing the opera houses and cities where each of the operas was premiered, drawings of costumes and paintings and drawings of Verdi. The opera extracts would be presented in chronological order. In sum, "a synthesis of the personal and artistic journey of the Maestro"
Meanwhile the preparations for the Gala dinner continued apace. Here is the menu as reported in the Gazetta di Parma, of 7 March on an article entitled 'Cena di gala in occasione del "Verdi Live"'...
- aperitifs served at the table
- a "refined buffet" with choice of all the most prized Parma delicacies: prosciutto crudo di
Parma, salame gentile di Felino, strolghino della Bassa parmense, shavings of Parmesan chees with balsamic vinegar from Modena
-risotto alla parmigiana and cappelletti 'verdiani' flavored with truffles
-cooked shoulder of beef with mostarda di Cremona (a kind of sweet-sour fruit relish)
-fricassee of duck with potatoes fondenti (i.e. cooked until they melt in your mouth)
- a "rich" dessert buffet
The wines: Ventian pinot grigio «Vivolo», Muller Thurgau Santa Margherita, Gutturnio doc dei
colli Piacentini Casanova, Terre verdiane Ceci e moscato dolce Lamoretti.
As the article described it... "felice connubio fra il bel canto e la buona tavola" ("a happy marriage between beautiful singing and a fine table" Which for me, sums up Parma's main pleasures. The cost of the dinner was 150,000 lire (about $75) per person quite a bargain. But it was free of course for the guests of honor, the singers, orchestra, and chorus.
Reporting in the Corriere on 12 March, in an article entitled, "Prima di Raggiungere il podio...", Valerio Cappelli added a bit more data about the feast:
- 800 guests
- 18 chefs
- 80 waiters
- 4000 glasses
And he praised the City of Parma for "the sumptuous alimentary libations". As you can see, the Italians take their food very seriously, and the descriptions tend towards the highly poetic. Of course, Cappelli had even more praise for the Gala itself. More from him in the next installment of the Digest which will cover the post-Gala reviews from the critics and comments from the audience.
Translations and Commentary © Jean Peccei
Front page of the Gazzetta di Parma 12.3.2001. Jose Carreras, Barbara Frittoli, Zubin Mehta (conducting), and Ruggero Raimondi in Jerusalem, Trio from Act IV 'Dieu nous sépare'
This page was last edited on: February 18, 2003
