giovanni vitali
HEAD OF OFFICE FOR CULTURAL PROMOTION AT "MAGGIO MUSICALE FIORENTINO"
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR FESTIVAL "SOLO BELCANTO"
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR FESTIVAL "SOLO BELCANTO"
"Art is the nutrition for our soul"
Giovanni Vitali is the head of the Office for Cultural Promotion at the famous "Maggio Musicale Fiorentino". He is also the artistic director of the festival "Solo Belcanto", in the beautiful town Montisi, in Tuscan.
By @kassandra_dimopoulou_official
By @kassandra_dimopoulou_official
Florence, 11/08/2020
How was your passion for opera born?
I really don’t know exactly… but it did! We had no professional musicians in the family, but my mother’s family loved opera very much and they all went to the opera often, but then I was born and my mum didn’t have much time to go so often any more. I remember that, when I was a child, my family used to watch opera performances on television, from big theatres like La Scala, but it was so boring for me to watch, because I couldn’t understand the words. I still remember watching a “Norma” with Monserat Caballe singing the title role and Gavazzeni conducting. That was the most boring evening in my life! Later, when I was growing up, I started listening to my father’s discs and so I started liking the music- opera, too. My uncle also had a passion for music and he was one of the first people to buy a stereo and high quality discs. Many of the discs that I have, were a present from my uncle. I think my passion for music was born also from the fact that, every time we went on holiday at my mothers birth place, Marcialla of the Chianti region, I was listening to the local band playing and going to their rehearsals. I think, my passion for the performing arts was born mainly because of my grandfather, who was an amateur actor- a comedian. He and other people used to recite in the theatre after work. So, at a certain point in my life, because of all these influence from my family and the Italian culture, my passion for singing and opera and generally for music, was born.
Would you say that technology helped you get to know, and later love music?
Absolutely yes. It started from there, but then the theatre took over. I still remember the day: It was a Sunday afternoon and two friends of my parents who had tickets for the opera (for Maggio Musicale Fiorentino) asked them if they would like to have the tickets and take me to the opera, because they couldn’t go and so I went with my mother instead, to see “Norma” starring Renata Scotto, under the direction of maestro Riccardo Muti. That was the first opera I saw live. After that, my family started an annual subscription in Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and we all went often to the opera, were I saw many great operas.
How did it come to have this very important job at the opera Maggio Musicale Fiorentino?
When I was a little boy, I always said that I wanted to study music- the flute. My father didn’t agree to that and said that it would be better if I wouldn’t go to the conservatory, because “I was not a musician”. He didn’t think that I had the talent and he was probably right, because if I went I would probably have become a mediocre musician. Instead, I have chosen another path. I said to him: “All right, I will continue to study and one day, I will become a journalist specialised in music”- and so I did. I studied philology and right after that, I started working in a newspaper. I learned how to be a journalist there, because you know, one learns to be a professional whilst doing the profession. At that time, newspapers were very different than today: There were no computers, no internet and so, one had to know how to write well and also, how to find all the information needed, as fast as possible. Later I worked for many years as a music critic, in an important national newspaper of the ‘70s- ‘80’s, “Paese Sera”. After that I dedicated myself more and more to the music and to the organisation of events. I also worked in RAI in Rome, reporting live performances and concerts from several theatres “on air”. I reported live for Maggio Musicale Fiornetino, for the Rossini Festival in Pesaro and many more. One day, I received a call from Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and I was asked if I wanted to work for them. I accepted and I worked many years in the press office of the theatre. Now we have created a new office, which is called “office for cultural promotion” (“ufficio promozione culturale”). The idea started in 2014, it was an idea of the intendant Alberto Triola and the superintendent Francesco Bianchi. The office is basically in charge for all the initiatives concerning the artistic program of the theatre, not only the one for the public, but also those for the schools (educational programs).
What is so particular about your position in the “Office for Cultural Promotion” and what difference has this office made for the theatre over the last years?
My work in this office is very important because I need to form the public. It is very important to keep the public that is already attending our performances, a public that is really informed about the spectacles and knows about opera coming, but also very important to create new public, not only by informing more people about our activity, but also by bringing the young people to the theatre. For these reasons, we created a series of conferences which the public can attend, before they come and see the actual performance, so they know what the performance is about. These conferences really help to create new pubic and also inform the people that come to the opera for the first time. We also have a whole separate artistic activity, performances that are produced only for the schools, for pupils of all ages. This is an activity of great responsibility. We have to light up a passion for art and specifically, for opera, in their young hearts, because these children are the future artists and public. That is why we try to create performances that speak directly to their age and to their sensibility.
Some things have of course changed over the years in our theatre. Many of our activities are now followed, for example, the guide that the public can take before the beginning of the opera: They are short conferences in which the public can hear some of the music of the opera they are about to hear, whilst young musicologists explain more about the opera. The success of this activity has grown so very big, that the hall we used to present those conferences is now too small for all the audience! Only last year, we managed to bring about 35.000 young people to the opera, not only to watch the educational performances, but also to watch the operas of our main program.
What makes the opera house Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence special?
This opera house started in 1933 with a very special profile. It has been a venue where rare operas, and works that have been discovered after research, have been performed. For many decades, it wasn’t a classical “repertoire” opera house, where one could watch the main repertoire, it has rather been theatre that introduced new repertoire, or old repertoire that has been forgotten. Many world firsts of rare works and many new productions have been performed in Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. This particular profile has faded with time. Nowadays, more and more theatres perform the main repertoire and even use the same productions or/and singers. Once, there has been more variety between venues. For example, one could go and hear the singers of the Saltzburg Festival only there- they wouldn’t perform anywhere else.
Who, in your opinion, needs to be more promoted: The artist, or the theatre?
Obviously, some venues have a very strong tradition, a history of their own, like some theatres in Italy such as La Scala, or La Fenice. These venues have created a fame over the decades, which of course has been built by the fact that many important artists have performed there!
The MET is promoting many of its artists in a very modern way, creating new opera stars in a very intelligent way, through all the medias and especially, television. The European theatres, on the other hand, don’t often do any promotion for their artists. Do you think it’s necessary for theatres internationally, to promote their artists more?
Some of the singers of today, like Anna Netrebko or Jonas Kauffmann, are well followed by the public, but still not in such way the public used to follow the stars of the past. For the theatre to really promote an artist, the artist has to be of a real value and artistic quality, a real artistic talent. I am afraid, I don’t see this happening any more. I see them promoting artists that may look nice or have a kind of glamour, but aren’t of real artistic material. The new generation of artists is much more musically prepared, more educated and also more technically advanced in some cases, but I don’t see a personality behind them. In our superficial world of today, the artists seem to be- as all people are- afraid to express themselves. I have seen many good Traviatas lately, with many young talents performing, but nobody has ever managed to move my soul as for example, Renata Scotto did in the past. So, to answer the question, in my opinion, no, because I don't see personalities on stage, like the ones of the artists of the past.
Over the years, you have met many artists and you have attend many opera productions. Is there an artist or a production that you will never forget?
I am really thankful to my fate and my jobs for having me brought near to so many extraordinary artists. I met many exceptional people, so, I am afraid that if I mention one of them, I will be unfair to all the others… If I had to say one name though, that would be the great tenor Alfredo Kraus, but in this moment, I would have to mention Rolando Panerai, too, because of his recent passing. I knew him very well, he was a great man, a great baritone, a great artist. I miss these great artistic personalities of the past. I also have to add that, near to the great ones, I also met people that I am happy not to meet again in my life!
Tell us about your festival, “Solo Belcanto”.
We started the “Solo Belcanto” festival in 2014. It’s a private initiative that is being partly supported by the Montalcino community and also by donors that support the festival. Our festival was born almost out of a bet between me and my dear friend, Silvia Mannucci, who lives in Montisi, a village near Montalcino. This place has a small theatre of 60 seats, and it was built by an ancestor of Silvia, Mrs Rosa Mannucci, who built it inside her farm, so that the village band could play. It was built at the end of 1800, beginning of 1900. One day, Silvia told me “why don’t we put this theatre in use this summer”? I wasn’t very positive about it at first, but then we started by calling some of my artist friends and contacts, people with important names, who volunteered to participate. They all loved Montisi, because it’s a beautiful place, where one can make music, eat, drink, enjoy nature, in a very relaxed way. Artists love to be here for 3- 4 days and to be creative in a way much different than the usual way when working in theatres, away from all the tension and the stress. In Montisi, they experience music in another dimension. This summer, due to the pandemic, we are not organising it, because there are severe problems in the touristic department and people are afraid to travel.
During the pandemic of COVID19, many artists started to perform on line. What is your impression about it?
I am very confused right now, because there are things that I don’t really like about the fact that there are so many concerts on the internet. I mean, it’s fine for this difficult period, because we were in lockdown for such a long time and many artists were -and still are- trying to maintain the connection to their public, but this should end soon: It’s necessary to reopen the theatres again. There is no way to replace the theatre with technological means, they are far to poor comparing to the live performance. It’s just not possible, to think that an application that is, for example, made for video calls, can be used for live music performances. If there is need for live streaming, it should be of a very high video and sound quality in order to represent the artists as good as possible. The MET Opera started live radio transmissions in the 30’s. It was the first opera house in the world to start live transmissions, but they did this as a way to attract people into the opera house- and so it happened. These transmissions should never be used to replace the live performances. People need to go to the theatre. I am positive that some people will start going to the theatre after following some artists on line, artists that they got to know during the lockdown, and that is a very positive thing. It’s important to always see the good, even in the most terrible hours, like this one. I must insist though, that the theatre is the right place to see an artist, it the only place that does the artist right and where the public can really see the extend of the artists’ talent.
Art is...
… something necessary for our existence, like food and water! Our body needs nutrition in order to survive, so does our soul and art is the nutrition for our soul. The things we see, we read, we hear, they make us grow, they make us think, they make us feel good and in some way, live better. We need to consider art as something necessary for our existence, an every day priority and not something of luxury. The museums, the theatres, are a priority for a better life. Art is not only amusement, it is there to make us reflect, think. This is maybe why the regimes were always afraid of art and tried to control it: Because art can be “dangerous”, it creates thinking and thinking may create oppositions. Some regimes, in all their wrong during the history of humanity, have well understood the power and importance of art and have also made good things with it, but mainly because they felt the need to control it, to make it work in their favour. Even our opera house, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino was born from fascism, from the regimes… Once upon the time, the regimes have made this theatre in their favour.
I really don’t know exactly… but it did! We had no professional musicians in the family, but my mother’s family loved opera very much and they all went to the opera often, but then I was born and my mum didn’t have much time to go so often any more. I remember that, when I was a child, my family used to watch opera performances on television, from big theatres like La Scala, but it was so boring for me to watch, because I couldn’t understand the words. I still remember watching a “Norma” with Monserat Caballe singing the title role and Gavazzeni conducting. That was the most boring evening in my life! Later, when I was growing up, I started listening to my father’s discs and so I started liking the music- opera, too. My uncle also had a passion for music and he was one of the first people to buy a stereo and high quality discs. Many of the discs that I have, were a present from my uncle. I think my passion for music was born also from the fact that, every time we went on holiday at my mothers birth place, Marcialla of the Chianti region, I was listening to the local band playing and going to their rehearsals. I think, my passion for the performing arts was born mainly because of my grandfather, who was an amateur actor- a comedian. He and other people used to recite in the theatre after work. So, at a certain point in my life, because of all these influence from my family and the Italian culture, my passion for singing and opera and generally for music, was born.
Would you say that technology helped you get to know, and later love music?
Absolutely yes. It started from there, but then the theatre took over. I still remember the day: It was a Sunday afternoon and two friends of my parents who had tickets for the opera (for Maggio Musicale Fiorentino) asked them if they would like to have the tickets and take me to the opera, because they couldn’t go and so I went with my mother instead, to see “Norma” starring Renata Scotto, under the direction of maestro Riccardo Muti. That was the first opera I saw live. After that, my family started an annual subscription in Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and we all went often to the opera, were I saw many great operas.
How did it come to have this very important job at the opera Maggio Musicale Fiorentino?
When I was a little boy, I always said that I wanted to study music- the flute. My father didn’t agree to that and said that it would be better if I wouldn’t go to the conservatory, because “I was not a musician”. He didn’t think that I had the talent and he was probably right, because if I went I would probably have become a mediocre musician. Instead, I have chosen another path. I said to him: “All right, I will continue to study and one day, I will become a journalist specialised in music”- and so I did. I studied philology and right after that, I started working in a newspaper. I learned how to be a journalist there, because you know, one learns to be a professional whilst doing the profession. At that time, newspapers were very different than today: There were no computers, no internet and so, one had to know how to write well and also, how to find all the information needed, as fast as possible. Later I worked for many years as a music critic, in an important national newspaper of the ‘70s- ‘80’s, “Paese Sera”. After that I dedicated myself more and more to the music and to the organisation of events. I also worked in RAI in Rome, reporting live performances and concerts from several theatres “on air”. I reported live for Maggio Musicale Fiornetino, for the Rossini Festival in Pesaro and many more. One day, I received a call from Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and I was asked if I wanted to work for them. I accepted and I worked many years in the press office of the theatre. Now we have created a new office, which is called “office for cultural promotion” (“ufficio promozione culturale”). The idea started in 2014, it was an idea of the intendant Alberto Triola and the superintendent Francesco Bianchi. The office is basically in charge for all the initiatives concerning the artistic program of the theatre, not only the one for the public, but also those for the schools (educational programs).
What is so particular about your position in the “Office for Cultural Promotion” and what difference has this office made for the theatre over the last years?
My work in this office is very important because I need to form the public. It is very important to keep the public that is already attending our performances, a public that is really informed about the spectacles and knows about opera coming, but also very important to create new public, not only by informing more people about our activity, but also by bringing the young people to the theatre. For these reasons, we created a series of conferences which the public can attend, before they come and see the actual performance, so they know what the performance is about. These conferences really help to create new pubic and also inform the people that come to the opera for the first time. We also have a whole separate artistic activity, performances that are produced only for the schools, for pupils of all ages. This is an activity of great responsibility. We have to light up a passion for art and specifically, for opera, in their young hearts, because these children are the future artists and public. That is why we try to create performances that speak directly to their age and to their sensibility.
Some things have of course changed over the years in our theatre. Many of our activities are now followed, for example, the guide that the public can take before the beginning of the opera: They are short conferences in which the public can hear some of the music of the opera they are about to hear, whilst young musicologists explain more about the opera. The success of this activity has grown so very big, that the hall we used to present those conferences is now too small for all the audience! Only last year, we managed to bring about 35.000 young people to the opera, not only to watch the educational performances, but also to watch the operas of our main program.
What makes the opera house Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence special?
This opera house started in 1933 with a very special profile. It has been a venue where rare operas, and works that have been discovered after research, have been performed. For many decades, it wasn’t a classical “repertoire” opera house, where one could watch the main repertoire, it has rather been theatre that introduced new repertoire, or old repertoire that has been forgotten. Many world firsts of rare works and many new productions have been performed in Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. This particular profile has faded with time. Nowadays, more and more theatres perform the main repertoire and even use the same productions or/and singers. Once, there has been more variety between venues. For example, one could go and hear the singers of the Saltzburg Festival only there- they wouldn’t perform anywhere else.
Who, in your opinion, needs to be more promoted: The artist, or the theatre?
Obviously, some venues have a very strong tradition, a history of their own, like some theatres in Italy such as La Scala, or La Fenice. These venues have created a fame over the decades, which of course has been built by the fact that many important artists have performed there!
The MET is promoting many of its artists in a very modern way, creating new opera stars in a very intelligent way, through all the medias and especially, television. The European theatres, on the other hand, don’t often do any promotion for their artists. Do you think it’s necessary for theatres internationally, to promote their artists more?
Some of the singers of today, like Anna Netrebko or Jonas Kauffmann, are well followed by the public, but still not in such way the public used to follow the stars of the past. For the theatre to really promote an artist, the artist has to be of a real value and artistic quality, a real artistic talent. I am afraid, I don’t see this happening any more. I see them promoting artists that may look nice or have a kind of glamour, but aren’t of real artistic material. The new generation of artists is much more musically prepared, more educated and also more technically advanced in some cases, but I don’t see a personality behind them. In our superficial world of today, the artists seem to be- as all people are- afraid to express themselves. I have seen many good Traviatas lately, with many young talents performing, but nobody has ever managed to move my soul as for example, Renata Scotto did in the past. So, to answer the question, in my opinion, no, because I don't see personalities on stage, like the ones of the artists of the past.
Over the years, you have met many artists and you have attend many opera productions. Is there an artist or a production that you will never forget?
I am really thankful to my fate and my jobs for having me brought near to so many extraordinary artists. I met many exceptional people, so, I am afraid that if I mention one of them, I will be unfair to all the others… If I had to say one name though, that would be the great tenor Alfredo Kraus, but in this moment, I would have to mention Rolando Panerai, too, because of his recent passing. I knew him very well, he was a great man, a great baritone, a great artist. I miss these great artistic personalities of the past. I also have to add that, near to the great ones, I also met people that I am happy not to meet again in my life!
Tell us about your festival, “Solo Belcanto”.
We started the “Solo Belcanto” festival in 2014. It’s a private initiative that is being partly supported by the Montalcino community and also by donors that support the festival. Our festival was born almost out of a bet between me and my dear friend, Silvia Mannucci, who lives in Montisi, a village near Montalcino. This place has a small theatre of 60 seats, and it was built by an ancestor of Silvia, Mrs Rosa Mannucci, who built it inside her farm, so that the village band could play. It was built at the end of 1800, beginning of 1900. One day, Silvia told me “why don’t we put this theatre in use this summer”? I wasn’t very positive about it at first, but then we started by calling some of my artist friends and contacts, people with important names, who volunteered to participate. They all loved Montisi, because it’s a beautiful place, where one can make music, eat, drink, enjoy nature, in a very relaxed way. Artists love to be here for 3- 4 days and to be creative in a way much different than the usual way when working in theatres, away from all the tension and the stress. In Montisi, they experience music in another dimension. This summer, due to the pandemic, we are not organising it, because there are severe problems in the touristic department and people are afraid to travel.
During the pandemic of COVID19, many artists started to perform on line. What is your impression about it?
I am very confused right now, because there are things that I don’t really like about the fact that there are so many concerts on the internet. I mean, it’s fine for this difficult period, because we were in lockdown for such a long time and many artists were -and still are- trying to maintain the connection to their public, but this should end soon: It’s necessary to reopen the theatres again. There is no way to replace the theatre with technological means, they are far to poor comparing to the live performance. It’s just not possible, to think that an application that is, for example, made for video calls, can be used for live music performances. If there is need for live streaming, it should be of a very high video and sound quality in order to represent the artists as good as possible. The MET Opera started live radio transmissions in the 30’s. It was the first opera house in the world to start live transmissions, but they did this as a way to attract people into the opera house- and so it happened. These transmissions should never be used to replace the live performances. People need to go to the theatre. I am positive that some people will start going to the theatre after following some artists on line, artists that they got to know during the lockdown, and that is a very positive thing. It’s important to always see the good, even in the most terrible hours, like this one. I must insist though, that the theatre is the right place to see an artist, it the only place that does the artist right and where the public can really see the extend of the artists’ talent.
Art is...
… something necessary for our existence, like food and water! Our body needs nutrition in order to survive, so does our soul and art is the nutrition for our soul. The things we see, we read, we hear, they make us grow, they make us think, they make us feel good and in some way, live better. We need to consider art as something necessary for our existence, an every day priority and not something of luxury. The museums, the theatres, are a priority for a better life. Art is not only amusement, it is there to make us reflect, think. This is maybe why the regimes were always afraid of art and tried to control it: Because art can be “dangerous”, it creates thinking and thinking may create oppositions. Some regimes, in all their wrong during the history of humanity, have well understood the power and importance of art and have also made good things with it, but mainly because they felt the need to control it, to make it work in their favour. Even our opera house, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino was born from fascism, from the regimes… Once upon the time, the regimes have made this theatre in their favour.
