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From Maggioblog.

Antigone, Prima Mondiale

A few weeks ago, on April 24, 2007, the world premiere of Antigone, the first opera by italian composer Ivan Fedele (born in 1953) opened the 70th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Antigone
Opera in sette quadri di Ivan Fedele
Libretto di Giuliano Corti

Direttore..........Michel Tabachnik
Antigone...........Monica Bacelli
Ismene.............Chiara Taigi
Creonte......Roberto Abbondanza
Una Guardia.....Bruno Lazzaretti
Emone.......Mirko Guadagnini
Tiresia.......Martin Oro

I didn't go, but I got the chance to listen to a recording made from the Rai Radio Tre live broadcast of the evening.

Thank God I didn't go.
This is not music to me. Let alone opera.
This is a succession of weird noises, with voices to cover up the failure (which they don't), with absolutely no musicality whatsoever.

Judging in comparison with Tan Dun's First Emperor, which received some well-deserved bad critics (which I agreed with), Antigone is far worse.

The score is, well, non-existing.
The melodic lines are, also, non-existing.
The use of the various instruments of the orchestra is, clearly, as bad as it gets.

And the global atmosphere coming from this so-called opera is that you're listening to the soundtrack of a very bad horror movie, hoping everybody dies fast, so this painful experience finally stops.
Of course, they don't.

And you end up either shooting yourself or shooting at the player, just to make this hell go away.


Italian links:
All about Jazz, Operaclick.

All photos Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Orfeo ed Euridice, Muti

I was kinda pissed off Saturday night because I wanted to listen (via the internet) to Rai Radio Tre, who was broadcasting live from the Teatro Comunale di Firenze (it's the 70th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino) Orfeo ed Euridice, by Gluck, conducted by my beloved Riccardo Muti. I couldn't, thanks to their streaming not working. But now, I'm really pissed off, when I read there that the night was magical; "SERATONA! Grande musica, gradissima orchestra, grande Maeshtr!!! Ineccepibile. [beyond reproach] Queste sono le serate da non perdersi e che riconciliano con la musica tutta!!!" Pff. "Certi momenti da brividi [thrill], come il finale del secondo atto, o tutta la scena orfeo euridice del terzo. Una meraviglia. Peccato per chi non c'era" Pff. "Serata magica. Non ci sono parole. Tutto guasterebbe la magia di un'opera sublime e di una altrettanto sublime esecuzione." Pff. Pff.