A crowded hall gathered at the Italian Cultural Institute of London, directed by Francesco Bongarrà, for the presentation of the exhibition “Puccini – Opera Meets New Media,” which opened at the Museo Teatrale alla Scala in Milan on 24 October and will run until 12 January.
The multimedia exhibition, organised by the Ricordi Historical Archive and the Museo Teatrale alla Scala, explores the life of the great composer on the centenary of his death and showcases the interaction between opera and the media of the time.
“La Scala’s Music Director, Riccardo Chailly, is a great connoisseur and enthusiast of Puccini,” explained Paolo Besana, Communications Director of the Fondazione Teatro alla Scala. “He began working on this project many years ago, for example by studying the various existing versions of several Puccini operas, from La Fanciulla del West to Madama Butterfly.”
“The exhibition’s concept is also to engage with modern media, beyond those of Puccini’s era,” added Pierluigi Ledda, Director of the Ricordi Historical Archive. “We envisioned a historical archive that could also be reimagined.” One example is the original set of Turandot, which has been digitally recreated and transformed: the set takes on a modern look, expanding upon its original form. “In this way,” Ledda continued, “the archive’s documents, now digitised, are available online as well.”
Musicologist, composer, and Scientific Director of the Ricordi Historical Archive, Gabriele Dotto, curator of the exhibition, then spoke, noting the significant changes in society and music production at the turn of the century, driven largely by technological advances. “Records, for example,” he observed, “were a major innovation—the idea of listening to the same performance, identically repeated, endlessly. And cinema,” he added, “even silent cinema, which wasn’t truly silent since it always had live musical accompaniment. From its beginnings, cinema was captivated by opera—think of Madama Butterfly or Tosca, with Francesca Bertini, the greatest actress of the time. Or new forms of piracy, like Puccini’s melodies being repeated in a pop song or a fox-trot record.”
Image Credits: Ph. Stefano Broli
