A thoroughbred Messinese on the podium of the Wiener Philarmoniker. For those who know what we are talking about, an equal probability if not less than those of an astronaut fellow citizen, or Pope. The podium of the most famous orchestra in the world.
Maestro Antonino Fogliani, do you direct the rule to the Staatsoper of Vienna in these days, do we want to take advantage of it to talk some music?
“Of course, it’s a pleasure.”
The title will be “a Messina area on the podium of the Wiener Philarmoniker” or something like this, does it say that it will play the provincial?
“But no, I am provincial Messina, so very free, we would miss (laughs)”.
The orchestra that was by Mahler and Furwangler, custodian of the great Austro-German symphonic tradition. A great honor and an emotion, I imagine. How is it on that podium?
“Very good. Norma in Vienna hadn’t done it for a lifetime, the last one to bring it had been Riccardo Muti, who was in the room for combination of my first, on a stage right above the hole. Certain honor, particular emotion no, I did my always work. I just thought about music, to draw the best of Bellini ».
She alternates on the podium to Michele Mariotti. The interpretative key is marked and is common, or has it had the opportunity and above all time to transmit “his” Bellini to the Wiener?
«Yes, of course, I directed a different version from that of Mariotti. It’s like being on a Ferrari, you drive it worthy, and personally. And those orchestrals are incredibly reactive to the gesture, they are glued to you and follow you, if they understand that you give them something ».
What is Bellini for German language and culture interpreters? Pure Belcanto, therefore performance of vocal features, or is it normally perceived as the musical masterpiece which is?
«Bellini has a distant connection with Wagner, especially on the times, which are very dilated. Yes, I would say a natural approach, I saw great confidence ».
And the public? The German -speaking one she knows him well since he is the first guest director of the Dutsche Omer Am Rhein of Düsseldorf.
«In Vienna the public is part of the connoisseurs part tourists, but in general here, as well as in Germany, those who go theater have a certain preparation. Our Sicilian Bellini is fully exhausted in Vienna and we also have full theater in Düsseldorf where I am still heading about Bellini, the Beatrice of Tenta, moreover in the concert form. We must be proud of this, he is a cultured audience, who loves beautiful music in the theater. Then maybe they look at the show and remain disappointed ».
And of course, it is inevitable to touch the button of the director of the director. Did the traditional workforce deleted them in those parts?
«Not entirely. In two seasons I will return to Vienna and direct Rossini’s Cinderella in the setting up of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Certain tradition remains, some theaters also repeat. On the other hand, always with Rossini made a very modern, very speckling barber but they removed it almost immediately. But in general we do not tend to distinguish between visual part and musical part, it is all a little mixed, the important thing is the pride of making great music. And I must say that we invented it, the musical theater, we have this pride less. Of course, there is an economy that turns behind the work, and it is not that the crisis does not feel even in these parts, in Berlin there are three theaters on the war footing, but nobody questioned that a city must have its own theater and that this must work, is the basis of their culture “.
The musical theater is also the basis of our culture. Sore button.
«In Italy it seems that the foundations are too many, and they cost too much. And the first cut is always given to culture. In a while I become a grandfather and Messina continues not to have a regular season, and we are not talking about orchestra, choir or corps de ballet ».
At the Vittorio Emanuele theater she directed Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Fifteen round years have passed. Maybe we’ll see her again, who knows.
«Yes, I also had to do Rigoletto but I gave up, past water anyway. Who knows, it would be nice but I see it difficult ».
Butterfly will return to direct it in August in Torre del Lago. What genius, Puccini. Incredible to think that a mute zero interests, and that Claudio Abbado, one of the greatest directors of all time, Italian, has never touched it. Isn’t it stunning?
«On Puccini he has serious faults the music critic of our Marxist matrix who who knows why he then associated him with the fascist twenty years. All nonsense of course, he died in 1924. Puccini had his European ear and breath. Luckily Karajan and then Sinopoli have returned his place to him, among the great music of the twentieth century. Do you think what a triptych directed by Abbado could be … ».
Not even she has still directed it, the triptych, and I know she is one of her most coveted goals. Other projects close and distant?
«I want to do it as soon as possible, yes, and in the next season I will work a lot in Berlin, with two or three titles a year. And I will finally debut Simon Boccanegra of Verdi, the other work of my dreams. Then I will be for the first time in Turin with Cinderella and I hope to return to Palermo, where there is a nice feeling ».
She has lived in Switzerland for years.
«In Lugano with my wife Angelica, also Messina, who teaches there. And then there is our son Lorenzo who is 18 years old, he studied composition, has his musical group and writes songs. In short, different fields ».
In Germany or elsewhere, have Wagner already proposed to her?
«I don’t speak so well German, and I still don’t feel like touching such a great composer. Of German in Holland I directed Ariadne Auf Naxos by Strauss, who also took a prize for best production, but Wagner is another thing. I love him, he smells it, the study, but they serve competence and authority to be heard and give something to an orchestra. Today I am in an important career point and what is asked of me is the Italian and French repertoire, my daily bread, my competence. Maybe in a few years … a Lohengrin, we are talking, we will see, but I repeat, the practice is too important, and I don’t want to make mistakes ».
Find time to teach: conducting direction, at the Palermo Conservatory.
«Yes, I care a lot, because teaching I teach myself. The head must always be forward, I do not conceive the performance, the enjoyment of the moment. Those who listen, live “live”, we don’t, we live in advance to give what must happen. Many are drinking of the beautiful gesture, but when you get on the level there is no fiction that holds: if you have nothing to give, an orchestra like the wiener arranges, ignores you and goes by itself ».
Music and art have, they must also have a social function, and denunciation. Today more than ever, they are bad times.
«In Geneva I made Butterfly in the version of Milan, which on the theme of racism is even more explicit than the definitive one. Pinkerton is a colonialist and a cio-cio-san an exploited, is it under everyone’s eyes right? And always in Geneva, where they experience a lot, I changed the Nabucco finale. I wrote it – God and greens forgive me – on sciarrinian models, a “va thought” with a closed mouth, with the women of the choir that took all the burqa, a strong political image. Philology is not a religion, the work to be done is to historicize, and understand. Sometimes it seems that the Wake culture aims to hide, instead. And those who would like to ban the Butterfly. And in some work there are those who change the words. The judge of the “masked dance” says Di Ulrica “of the immune to the blacks of the Negroes”. And they change it. But is Verdi racist? Of course not: it is the judge who is racist. Just highlight it. And what Pinkerton has done to Cio-Vio-San is exploitation. Music has political and social value, and discussion. And the story of exploiters and exploited, like racism, still happens ».